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Triumphant Democracy 



OR 



FIFTY YEARS' MARCH OF 
THE REPUBLIC 



DY 

ANDREW C A R N E Ci 1 K 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIiNER'S SONS 

1888 






Copyright, 1886, 
Bv ANDREW CARNEGIE, 



Act 

7 »lr'02 



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►rj^r^^-HMs.;. Little & Co. 
Astor Place, New k^^' 




TO THE 

BELOVED REPUBLIC 

UNDER WHOSE EQUAL LAWS I AM 

MADE THE PEER OF ANY MAN, ALTHOUGH DENIED 

POLITICAL EQUALITY BY MY NATIVE LAND, 

I DEDICATE THIS BOOK 

WITH AN INTENSITY OF GRATITUDE 

AND ADMIRATION WHICH THE NATIVE-BORN CITIZEN 

CAN NEITHER FEEL NOR UNDERSTAND. 

ANDREW CARNEGIE. 



PREFACE. 



Born a subject of the Monarchy, adopted a citizen 
of the Republic, how could it be otherwise than that I 
should love both lands and long to do whatever in me 
lay to bring their people to a like affection for each 
other ! The lamentable ignorance concerning the new 
land which I have found even in the highest political 
circles of the old first suggested to me how delightful 
the task would be to endeavor to show something 
of what the Republic really is, and thus remove, at 
least in part, the misconceptions which still linger in 
the minds of many good people of Britain. I believed, 
also, that my attempt would give to Americans a better 
idea of the great work their country had done and is 
still doing in the world. Probably few Americans 
will read this book without being astonished at some 
of the facts elicited. During its progress I have been 
deeply interested in it, and it may truly be regarded 
as a labor of love — the tribute of a very dutiful and 
grateful adopted son to the country which has removed 
the stigma of inferiority which his native land saw 
proper to impress upon him at birth, and has made 
him, in the estimation of its great laws as well as in his 



vi Preface. 

own estimation (much the more important considera- 
tion), the peer of any human being who draws the 
breath of Hfe, be he pope, kaiser, priest or king — hence- 
forth the subject of no man, but a free man, a citizen ! 

It is to the people, the plain, common folk, the De- 
mocracy of Britain, that I seek to show the progress, 
prosperity, and happiness of their child, the Republic, 
that they may still more deeply love it and learn that 
the government of the people through the republican 
form and not the government of a class through the 
monarchical form is the surest foundation of individual 
growth and of national greatness. 

To the whole body of Americans I have been anx- 
ious to give a juster estimate than prevails in some 
quarters of the political and social advantages which 
they so abundantly possess over the people of the older 
and less advanced lands, that they may be still prouder 
and even more devoted if possible to their institutions 
than they are ; and I have, also, been no less anxious that 
the influence of every page of this book might be to in- 
cline the American to regard with reverence and affection 
the great parent people from whom he has sprung, from 
whose sacrifices in the cause of civil and religious lib- 
erty he has reaped so rich a harvest, and to whom he 
owes a debt of gratitude which can never be adequately 
repaid. 

The work once decided upon, I naturally obtained 
all preceding books bearing upon the subject. As the 



Preface, n\\ 

pile of reference books, census reports and statistical 
works lay around upon tables and shelves, the ques- 
tion suggested itself, " Shall these dry bones live ? " I 
hope, therefore, indulgent readers, that you will not 
be warranted in accusing me of giving too much 
solid information. I have tried to coat the wholesome 
medicine of facts in the sweetest and purest sugar of 
fancy at my command. Pray you, open your mouths 
and swallow it in small doses, and like the sugar even if 
you detest the pill. One word, however, to the critical 
statistician, and let this be very clearly understood : al- 
though designedly written in as light a style as I am 
master of, mark me, no liberties have been taken with 
facts, figures or calculations. Every statement has been 
carefully verified and re-verified ; every calculation has 
been gone over and over again. My readers may safely 
rely upon the correctness of every quantitative state- 
ment made. Considered as a book of reference, what 
is herein stated is under-stated rather than over-stated. 

I acknowledge with great pleasure the almost indis- 
pensable aid received in the preparation of this work 
from my clever secretary, Mr. Bridge. I am also in- 
debted to Mr. John D. Champlin, Jr., for many valuable 
suggestions and for careful supervision as it went 
through the press. 

The books and documents and official reports con- 
sulted have been legion ; I cannot, therefore, undertake 
to mention them, but I have received more data from 



viii Preface. 

that marvellous work — " Scribner's Statistical Atlas '* — 
than from any other source or, indeed, from any several 
sources combined. 

And now, if I have succeeded in giving n.^ country- 
men on either or both sides of the Atlantic even a 
small amount of information about the Republic of my 
love, or brought them nearer together in the bonds of 
genial affection, or hastened by one hour the day in 
which my native land shall stand forth with my adopted 
land under the only noble political creed — that which 
proclaims the equality of the citizen — I shall have re- 
ceived an ample reward. 

The Author. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGB 

The Republic i 

CHAPTER II. 
The American People 23 

CHAPTER III. 
Cities and Towns 46 

CHAPTER IV. 
Conditions of Life 74 

CHAPTER V. 
Occupations 109 

CHAPTER VI. 
Education 131 

CHAPTER VII. 
Religion 152 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Pauperism and Crime 165 

CHAPTER IX. 
Agriculture 180 

CHAPTER X. 
Manufactures 211 



X Contents, 

CHAPTER XI. 

PAGE 

Mining 241 

CHAPTER XII. 
Trade and Commerce 265 

CHAPTER XIII. 
Railways and Waterways 283 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Art and Music 316 

CHAPTER XV. 
Literature 342 

CHAPTER XVI. 
The Federal Constellation 364 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Foreign Affairs 398 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
The Government's Non-political Work 414 

CHAPTER XIX. 
The National Balance Sheet 446 

CHAPTER XX. 
General Reflections 471 



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TRIUMPHANT DEMOCRACY. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE REPUBLIC. 



" Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing 
herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks ; 
methinks I see her as an eagle mewing her mighty youth, and kindling 
her undazzled eyes at the full mid-day beam ; purging and unsealing her 
long-abused sight at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance ; while the 
whole noise of timorous and flocking birds, with those also that love the 

twilight, flutter about, amazed at what she means." — Milton. 

• 

The old nations of the earth creep on at a snail's 
pace ; the Republic thunders past with the rush of the 
express. The United States, the growth of a single 
century, has already reached the foremost rank among 
nations, and is destined soon to out-distance all others 
in the race. In population, in wealth, in annual sav- 
ings, and in public credit ; in freedom from debt, 
in agriculture, and in manufactures, America already 
leads the civilized world. 

France, with her fertile plains and sunny skies, 
requires a hundred and sixty years to grow two. 
Frenchmen where one grew before. Great Britain, 
whose rate of increase is greater than that of any 



2 Triumphant Democracy. 

other European nation, takes seventy years to double 
her population. The Republic has repeatedly doubled 
hers in twenty-five years. 

In 1 83 1, Great Britain and Ireland contained twenty- 
four millions of people, and fifty years later (1881) 
thirty-four millions. France increased, during the 
same period, from thirty-two and a half to thirty- 
seven and a half millions. The Republic bounded 
from thirteen to fifty millions. England gained ten, 
France five, the United States thirty-seven millions ! 
Thus the Republic, in one half-century, added to her 
numbers as many as the present total population of 
France, and more than the present population of the 
United Kingdom. Think of it ! A Great Britain 
and Ireland called forth from the wilderness, as if by 
magic, in less than the span of a man's few days upon 
earth, almost 

"As if the yawning earth to heaven, 
A subterranean host had given." 

Truly the Republic is the Minerva of nations ; full- 
armed has she sprung from the brow of Jupiter Britain. 
The thirteen millions of Americans of 1830 have now 
increased to fifty-six millions — more English-speaking 
people than exist in all the world besides ; more than 
in the United Kingdom and all her colonies, even were 
the latter doubled in population ! 

Startling as is this statement, it is tame in com- 
parison with that which is to follow. In 1850 the 



The Republic, % 

total wealth of the United States was but $8,430,000,- 
000 (;^ 1,686,000,000), while that of the United King- 
dom exceeded $22,500,000,000 (;^4, 5 00,000,000), or near- 
ly three times that sum. Thirty short years sufificed 
to reverse the positions of the respective countries. 
In 1882 the Monarchy was possessed of a golden load 
of no less than eight thousand, seven hundred and 
twenty millions sterling. Just pause a moment to 
see how this looks when strung out in cold figures ; 
but do not try to realize what it means, for mortal 
man cannot conceive it. Herbert Spencer need not 
travel so far afield to reach the "unknowable!" He 
has it right here under his very eyes. Let him try 
to "know" the import of this — $43,600,000,000 (;^8,- 
720,000,000) ! It is impossible. But stupendous as 
this seems, it is exceeded by the wealth of the Re- 
public, which in 1880, two years before, amounted to 
$48,950,000,000 (^9,790,000,000). What a mercy we 
write for 1880; for had we to give the wealth of one 
year later another figure would have to be found, and 
added to the interminable row. America's wealth to- 
day greatly exceeds ten thousand millions sterling. 
Nor is this altogether due to her enormous agricultural 
resources, as may at first glance be thought ; for all 
the world knows she is first among nations in agricul- 
ture. It is largely attributable to her manufacturing 
industries, for, as all the world does not know, she, and 
not Great Britain, is also the greatest manufacturing 



4 Triuinpha7it Democracy, 

country. In 1880 British manufactures amounted in 
value to eight hundred and eighteen miUions sterling ; 
those of America to eleven hundred and twelve mil- 
lions'^ — nearly half as much as those of the whole of 
Europe, which amounted to twenty-six hundred mil- 
lions. Thus, although Great Britain manufactures for 
the whole world, and the Republic is only gaining, 
year after year, greater control of her own markets, 
Britain's manufactures in 1880 were not two-thirds the 
value of those of the one-century-old Republic, which 
is not generally considered a manufacturing country 

at all. 

In the savings of nations America also comes first, 

her annual savings of two hundred and ten millions 
sterling exceeding those of the United Kingdom by 
fifty-six millions, and those of France by seventy mil- 
lions sterling. The fifty milHon Americans of 1880 
could have bought up the one hundred and forty mil- 
lions of Russians, Austrians, and Spaniards ; or, after 
purchasing wealthy France, would have had enough 
pocket m.oney to acquire Denmark, Norway, Switzer- 
land, and Greece. The Yankee Republican could even 
buy the home of his ancestors — the dear old home with 
all its exquisite beauty, historical associations, and glor- 
ious traditions, which challenge our love — and hold it 
captive, 

^ British returns do not include flour-mills and saw-mills, but sixty 
millions sterling, a sum far beyond their possible value, have been al- 
lowed for these in the above estimate. 



The Republic, 5 

*' The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, 
The solemn temples,'' 

aye, every acre of Great Britain and Ireland could he 
buy, and hold it as a pretty little Isle of Wight to his 
great continent ; and after doing this he could turn 
round and pay off the entire national debt of that 
deeply indebted land, and yet not exhaust his fortune, 
the product of a single century ! What will he not be 
able to do ere his second century closes ! Already 
the nations which have played great parts in the world's 
history grow small in comparison. In a hundred years 
they will be as dwarfs, in two hundred mere pigmies 
to this giant ; he the Gulliver of nations, they but Lili- 
putians who may try to bind him with their spider 
threads in vain. 

The shipping of the Republic ranks next to that of 
the world's carrier, Britain. No other nation approaches 
her for second place. In 1880, the carrying power 
of Great Britain was eighteen millions of tons ; that of 
the Republic nine millions, being about one-half the 
mother-land's commercial fleet, but more than that of 
France, Germany, Norway, Italy, and Spain combined, 
these being the five largest carrying powers of Europe 
after Britain. The Western Republic has more than 
four times the carrying capacity of its European sister 
France, and quite four times as much as Germany. 
Her ships earned nearly twenty per cent, of the total 
shipping earnings of the world in 1880. France and 



6 Triumphant Democracy. 

Germany each earned but a shade over five per cent. 
The exports and imports of America are already equal 
to those of either of those countries — about ii"3(X),000,0CX) 
sterling. Nothwithstanding those facts, which are cor- 
roborated by Mulhall, and are known to be correct, the 
general impression is that the Republic, gigantic as she 
is on land, has very little footing upon the water. This 
is one of many popular delusions about the "kin beyond 
sea." But while she is next to Britain herself as a mari- 
time power, it is when we turn to her internal com- 
merce — her carrying power on land — that she reverses 
positions with her great mother. The internal com- 
merce of the United States exceeds the entire foreign 
commerce of Great Britain and Ireland, France, Ger- 
many, Russia, Holland, Austria-Hungary, and Belgium 
combined. For railway freight over a hundred and ten 
millions sterling are annually paid, a greater sum than the 
railway freightage of Great Britain, France, and Italy 
collectively, and more than is earned by all the ships in 
the world, exclusive of America's own earnings from 
ships. The Pennsylvania Railroad system alone trans- 
ports more tonnage than all Britain's merchant ships. 

In military and naval power the Republic is at once 
the weakest and the strongest of nations. Her regular 
army consists of but twenty-five thousand men scattered 
all over the continent in companies of fifty or a hun- 
dred. Her navy, thank God ! is as nothing. But twenty 
years ago, as at the blast of a trumpet, she called into 



The Reptiblic, 7 

action two millions of armed men, and floated six hun- 
dred and twenty-six war-ships. Even the vaunted 
legions of Xerxes, and the hordes of Attila and Timour 
were exceeded in numbers by the citizen soldiers 
who took up arms in 1861 to defend the unity of the 
nation, and who, when the task was done, laid them 
quietly down, and returned to the avocations of peace. 
As Macaulay says of the soldiers of the Commonwealth : 
" In a few months there remained not a trace indicating 
that the most formidable army in the world had just 
been absorbed into the mass of the community." And 
the character of the Republic's soldiers, too, recalls his 
account of this republican army of Cromwell's. " The 
Royalists themselves confessed that, in every depart- 
ment of honest industry, the discarded warriors pros- 
pered beyond other men, that none was charged with 
any theft or robbery, that none was heard to ask for 
alms, and that if a baker, a mason, or a wagoner at- 
tracted notice by his diligence and sobriety, he was in 
all probability one of Oliver's old soldiers." This wa^; 
when the parent land was free from hereditary rulers 
and under the invigorating influence of republican insti- 
tutions. Thus do citizens fight on one side of the At- 
lantic as on the other, and, grander far, thus return to 
the pursuits of peace. Not for throne, for king, or for 
privileged class, but for Country, For a country which 
gives to the humblest every privilege accorded to the 
greatest, one says instinctively, 



8 Triumphant Democracy, 

" Where 's the coward that would not dare 
To fight for such a land ! " 

Britons as republicans were of course invincible. What 
chance in the struggle has a royalist who cries, " My 
king ! " against the citizen whose patriotic ardor glows 
as he whispers, " My country ! " The '' God save the 
King " of the monarchist grows faint before the nobler 
strain of the republican, 

" God bless our native land ! " 

Our king, poor trifler, may be beneath consideration. 
Our country is ever sure of our love. There be words 
to conjure and work miracles with, and '' our country " 
is of these. Others, having ceased to be divine, have 
become ridiculous, and " king " and " throne " are of 
these. 

The twenty thousand Englishmen who met in Bing- 
ley Hall, Birmingham, to honor the sturdiest English- 
man of all, John Bright, dispersed not with the paltry 
and puerile '•'■ God save the Queen," but with these glor- 
ious words sung to the same tune : 

" God bless our native land. 
May heaven's protecting hand 

Still guard her shore ; 
May peace her fame extend. 
Foe be transformed to friend, 
And Britain's power depend 

On war no more." 

Worthy this of England, blessed mother of nations 



The Republic, 9 

which now are, and of others yet to be. To hear it was 
worth the voyage across the Atlantic. Never crept the 
thrill of triumph more wildly through my frame than 
when I lifted up my voice and sang with the exulting 
mass the coming national hymn which is to live and 
vibrate round the world when royal families are as 
extinct as dodos. God speed the day ! A royal 
family is an insult to every other family in the land. 
I found no trace of them at Birmingham. 

The Republic wants neither standing army nor navy. 
In this lies her chief glory and her strength. Resting 
securely upon the love and devotion of all her sons, she 
can, Cadmus-like, raise from the soil vast armed hosts 
who fight only in her defence, and who, unlike the seed 
of the dragon, return to the avocations of peace when 
danger to the Republic is past. The American citizen 
who will not fight for his country if attacked is un- 
worthy the name, and the American citizen who could 
be induced to engage in aggressive warfare is equally 
so. 

Of more importance even than commercial or 
military strength is the Republic's commanding posi- 
tion among nations in intellectual activity ; for she 
excels in the number of schools and colleges, in the 
number and extent of her libraries, and in the num- 
ber of newspapers and other periodicals published. 

In the application of science to social and indus- 
trial uses, she is far in advance of other nations. 



lO Triumphant Democracy, 

Many of the most important practical inventions 
which have contributed to the progress of the world 
during the past century originated with Americans. 
No other people have devised so many labor-saving 
machines and appliances. The first commercially suc- 
cessful steamboat navigated the Hudson, and the 
first steamship to cross the Atlantic sailed under the 
American flag from an American port. America gave 
to the world the cotton-gin, and the first practical 
mov/ing, reaping, and sewing machines. In the most 
spiritual, most ethereal of all departments in which 
man has produced great triumphs, viz. : electricity, 
the position of the American is specially noteworthy. 
He may be said almost to have made this province his 
own, for, beginning with Franklin's discovery of the 
identity of lightning and electricity, it was an Ameri- 
can who devised the best and most widely used sys- 
tem of telegraphy, and an American who boldly un- 
dertook to bind together the old and the new land 
with electric chains. In the use of electricity for 
illuminating purposes America maintains her posi- 
tion as first wherever this subtile agent is invoked. 
The recent addition to the world's means of commu- 
nication, the telephone, is also to be credited to the 
new land. 

Into the distant future of this giant nation we 
need not seek to peer ; but if we cast a glance for- 
ward, as we have done backward, for only fifty 



The Republic. ii 

years, and assume that in that short interval no 
serious change will occur, the astounding fact star- 
tles us that in 1935, fifty years from now, when 
many in manhood will still be living, one hundred 
and eighty millions of English-speaking republicans 
will exist under one flag and possess more than 
two hundred and fifty thousand millions of dollars, or 
fifty thousand millions sterling of national wealth. 
Eighty years ago the whole of America and Eu- 
rope did not contain so many people ; and, if 
Europe and America continue their normal growth, 
it will be little more than another eighty years 
ere the mighty Republic may boast as many loyal 
citizens as all the rulers of Europe combined, for 
before the year 1980 Europe and America will 
each have a population of about six hundred mil- 
lions. 

The causes which have led to the rapid growth 
and aggrandizement of this latest addition to the 
family of nations constitute one of the most in- 
teresting problems in the social history of mankind. 
What has brought about such stupendous results — 
so unparalleled a development of a nation within 
so brief a period ! The most important factors in 
this problem are three : the ethnic character of the 
people, the topographical and climatic conditions under 
which they developed, and the influence of political 
institutions founded upon the equality of the citizen. 



12 Trittniphant Democracy. 

Certain writers in the past have maintained that the 
ethnic type of a people has less influence upon its 
growth as a nation than the conditions of life under 
which it is developing. The modern ethnologist knows 
better. We have only to imagine what America would 
be to-day if she had fallen, in the beginning, into the 
hands of any other people than the colonizing British, to 
see how vitally important is this question of race. 
America was indeed fortunate in the seed planted upon 
her soil. With the exception of a few Dutch and 
French it was wholly British ; and, as will be shown in 
the next chapter, the American of to-day remains true 
to this noble strain and is four-fifths British. The spe- 
cial aptitude of this race for colonization, it« vigor and 
enterprise, and its capacity for governing, although 
brilliantly manifested in all parts of the world, have 
never been shown to such advantage as in America. 
Freed here from the pressure of feudal institutions no 
longer fitted to their present development, and freed 
also from the dominion of the upper classes, which have 
kept the people at home from effective management of 
affairs and sacrificed the nation's interest for their own, 
as is the nature of classes, these masses of the lower 
ranks of Britons, cailed upon to found a new state, 
have proved themselves possessors of a positive genius 
for political administration. 

The second, and perhaps equally important factor in 
the problem of the rapid advancement of this branch of 



The Republic, 13 

the British race, is the superiority of the conditions un- 
der which it has developed. The home which has fallen 
to its lot, a domain more magnificent than has cradled 
any other race in the history of the world, presents 
no obstructions to unity — to the thorough amalgamation 
of its dwellers. North, South, East, and West, into one 
homogeneous mass — for the conformation of the Ameri- 
can continent differs in important respects from that of 
every other great division of the globe. In Europe the 
Alps occupy a central position, forming on each side 
watersheds of rivers which flow into opposite seas. In 
Asia the Himalaya, the Hindu Kush, and the Altai 
Mountains divide the continent, rolling from their sides 
many great rivers which pour their floods into widely 
separated oceans. But in North America the mountains 
rise up on each coast, and from them the land slopes 
gradually into great central plains, forming an immense 
basin where the rivers flow together in one valley, offer- 
ing to commerce many thousand miles of navigable 
streams. The map thus proclaims the unity of North 
America, for in this great central basin, three million 
square miles in extent, free from impassable rivers or 
mountain barriers great enough to hinder free inter- 
course, political integration is a necessity and consolida- 
tion a certainty. 

Herbert Spencer has illustrated by numerous ex- 
amples the principle that " mountain-haunting peoples 
and peoples living in deserts and marshes are difficult to 



14 TriMmphant Democracy, 

consolidate, while peoples penned in by barriers are 
consolidated with facility." Nations so separated, more- 
over, regard those beyond the barrier as natural enemies ; 
and in Europe the ambition and selfishness of ruling 
dynasties have helped to make this belief the political 
creed of the people. Cowper has seized upon this idea 

in the well-known lines : 

" Mountains interposed 
Make enemies of nations, who had else 
Like kindred drops been mingled into one." 

Europe has thus been kept in a state of perpetual 
war or of preparation for war among some of its several 
divisions, entailing much misery and loss of life as well 
as of material wealth, and retarding civilization. 

Besides the rivers, the great lakes of America, esti- 
mated to contain one-third of all the fresh water in the 
world, are another important element in aid of consoli- 
dation. A ship sailing from any part of the world may 
discharge its cargo at Chicago in the north-west, a 
thousand miles inland. The Mississippi and its tribu- 
taries traverse the great western basin, a million and a 
quarter square miles in extent, and furnish an internal 
navigable system of twenty thousand miles. A steamer 
starting from Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, four hundred 
and fifty miles inland from New York, and two thousand 
from the mouth of the Mississippi, passing through these 
water highways, and returning to its starting place at 
that smoky metropolis of iron and steel, will sail a dis- 



The Republic, 15 

tance much greater than round the world. Nor will it 
in all its course be stopped by any government official, 
or be taxed by any tariff. The flag it carries will en- 
sure free passage for ship and cargo, unimpeded by any 
fiscal charge whatever, for the whole continent enjoys 
the blessings of absolute freedom of intercourse among 
its citizens. In estimating the influences which pro- 
mote the consolidation of the people much weight must 
be given to this cause. Fifty-six millions of people, 
occupying an area which includes climatic differences 
so great that everything necessary for the wants of man 
can be readily produced, exchange their products with- 
out inspection or charge. Truly here is the most mag- 
nificent exhibition of free trade which the world has 
ever seen. It would be difficult to set bounds to the 
beneficial effects of the wise provision of the national 
Constitution which guarantees to every member of the 
vast confederacy the blessings of unrestricted commer- 
cial intercourse. 

Not only from an economical point of view, but 
from the higher stand-point of its bearing upon the 
unity and brotherhood of the people, this unrestricted 
freedom of trade mxust rank as one of the most potent 
agencies for the preservation of the Union. Were each 
of the thirty-eight States of the American continent to 
tax the products of the others we should soon see the dis- 
solution of the great Republic into thirty-eight warring 
factions. If any one doubts that free trade carries 



1 6 Triumphant Democracy. 

peace in its train let him study the internal free trade 
system of America. 

The railway system, although an artificial creation, 
must rank as even more important than the great natu- 
ral water-ways, in its influence upon the unification of 
the people. A hundred and thirty thousand miles of 
railways — more than in the whole of Europe — traverse 
the country in all directions, and bind the nation to- 
gether with bonds of steel. From the Atlantic to the 
Pacific, three thousand miles apart, or from New York 
to New Orleans, the traveller passes without change in 
the same moving hotel. In it he is fed and lodged, and 
has every want supplied. 

Seven hundred and sixty thousand miles of tele- 
graph, enough to put thirty girdles round the earth — 
the very nerves of the Republic — quiver night and day 
with social and commercial messages. The college-bred 
youth of Massachusetts is not separated from the pater- 
nal home and its associations when on his ranche in Colo- 
rado ; nor is the Eastern young lady removed from the 
home influences of New York when she marries the 
Southern planter and goes forth to create a similar home 
in Texas. Constant communication between the fami- 
lies and frequent visits animate them with kindred 
ideas and keep them united. They carry the Stars and 
Stripes with them wherever they settle, and preserve 
the unity of the nation. 

In the course of her short career the Republic has had 



The Reptiblic, 17 

to face and overcome two sources of great danger, either 
of which might have overtaxed the powers and stability 
of any poHtical fabric, resting upon a less wide and in- 
destructible base than the perfect equality of the citizen. 
The infant state was left with the viper, human slavery, 
gnawing at its vitals, and it grew and strengthened with 
the growth and strength of the Republic until sufficiently 
powerful to threaten its very life. Coiled round and 
into every joint and part of the body-politic and sucking 
away the moral strength of the nation, the slave power, 
in an effort to extend its baneful influence, fortunately 
committed one morning what is, in the soul of every 
American, the one unpardonable sin. It fired upon the 
flag. Blessed shot ! for it was required to bring home 
to the national conscience the knowledge that not only 
were freedom and slavery antagonistic social forces which 
never could be joined, but that slavery as a political in- 
stitution was inconsistent with the republican idea. The 
shot fired that bright, sunny morning at the ensign, 
floating like a thing of joy over the ramparts of Fort 
Sumter, left the patriot no recourse. A thrill passed 
through the Free States, and once again for unity, as 
before for independence, men of all parties pledged their 
lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to uphold 
the Republic. 

How nobly that pledge was redeemed is known to 
the world. Not only until every slave was free, but 
not until every slave was a citizen, with equal voice in 



1 8 Triumphant Democracy. 

the State, was the righteous sword of the Republic 
sheathed. 

The second source of danger lay in the millions of 
foreigners who came from all lands to the hospitable 
shores of the nation, many of them ignorant of the 
English language, and all unaccustomed to the exercise 
of political duties. If so great a number stood aloof 
from the national life and formed circles of their own, 
or if they sought America for a period only, to earn 
money with which to return to their original homes, 
the injury to the State must inevitably be serious. 

The generosity, shall I not say the incredible gen- 
erosity, with which the Republic has dealt with these 
people met its reward. They are won to her side 
by being offered for their .$-/^^>^^ship the boon of citi- 
zenship. For denial of equal privileges at home, the 
new land meets them with perfect equality, saying, 
be not only with us, but be of us. They reach the 
shores of the Republic subjects (insulting word), and she 
makes them citizens ; serfs, and she makes them men, 
and their children she takes gently by the hand and 
leads to the public schools which she has founded for her 
own children, and gives them, without money and with- 
out price, a good primary education as the most precious 
gift which even she has, in her bountiful hand, to bestow 
upon human beings. This is Democracy's *'gift of 
welcome " to the new comer. The poor immigrant can 
not help growing up passionately fond of his new home 



The Republic, 19 

and, alas, with many bitter thoughts of the old land 
which has defrauded him of the rights of man, and thus 
the threatened danger is averted — the homogeneity 
of the people secured. 

The unity of the American people is further power- 
fully promoted by the foundation upon which the politi- 
cal structure rests, the equality of the citizen. There is 
not one shred of privilege to be met with anywhere in 
all the laws. One man's right is every man's right. The 
flag is the guarantor and symbol of equality. The people 
are not emasculated by being made to feel that their 
own country decrees their inferiority, and holds them 
unworthy of privileges accorded to others. No ranks, no 
titles, no hereditary dignities, and therefore no classes. 
Suffrage is universal, and votes are of equal weight. 
Representatives are paid, and political life and useful- 
ness thereby thrown open to all. Thus there is brought 
about a community of interests and aims which a 
Briton, accustomed to monarchical and aristocratic in- 
stitutions, dividing the people into classes with separate 
interests, aims, thoughts, and feelings, can only with 
difficulty understand. 

The free common school system of the land is 
probably, after all, the greatest single power in the 
unifying process which is producing the new Ameri- 
can race. Through the crucible of a good common 
English education, furnished free by the State, pass 
the various racial elem.ents — children of Irishmen, 



20 Triumphant Democracy. 

Germans, Italians, Spaniards, and Swedes, side by side 
with the native American, all to be fused into one, in 
language, in thought, in feeling, and in patriotism. 
The Irish boy loses his brogue, and the German child 
learns English. The sympathies suited to the feudal 
systems of Europe, which they inherit from their^ 
fathers, pass off as dross, leaving behind the pure gold 
of the only noble political creed : " All men are created 
free and equal." Taught now to live and work for the 
common weal, and not for the maintenance of a royal 
family or an overbearing aristocracy, not for the con- 
tinuance of a social system which ranks them beneath 
an arrogant class of drones, children of Russian and 
German serfs, of Irish evicted tenants, Scotch crofters, 
and other victims of feudal tyranny, are transmuted 
into republican Americans, and are made one in love 
for a country which provides equal rights and privi- 
leges for all her children. There is no class so intensely 
patriotic, so wildly devoted to the Republic as the 
naturalized citizen and his child, for little does the 
native-born citizen know of the value of rights which 
have never been denied. Only the man born abroad, 
like myself, under institutions which insult him at his 
birth, can know the full meaning of RepubHcanism. 

It follows, from the prevailing system of free edu- 
cation, that the Americans are a reading people. Aris- 
ing out of this fact we find another powerful influence 
promoting unity of sentiment and purpose among the 



The Republic. 21 

millions of the Republic — the influence of the Amer- 
ican press. Eight thousand newspapers scattered 
throughout the land receive simultaneous reports. 
Everybody in America reads the same news the same 
morning, and discusses the same questions. The man 
of San Francisco is thus brought as near to a common 
centre with his fellow-citizen of St. Paul, New Orleans 
or New York, as is the man of London with him of 
Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, or Edinburgh, and 
infinitely nearer than the man of Belfast or Dublin. 
The bullet of the lunatic which killed President Gar- 
field, could it have traveled so far, would have been 
outstripped by the lightning messengers which carried 
the sad news to the most distant hamlet upon the 
continent. The blow struck in the afternpon found a 
nation of fifty-six millions bowed with grief ere sunset. 
So, too, the quiet intimation conveyed one evening by 
Secretary Seward to the Minister of France, that he 
thought Mexico was a very healthy country for the 
French to migrate from, called forth at every break- 
fast table the next morning the emphatic response — 
'' I rather guess that's so ! " Fortunately, the Emperor 
was of the same opinion. 

It is these causes which render possible the growth 
of a great homogeneous nation, alike in race, language, 
literature, interest, patriotism — an empire of such over- 
whelming power and proportions as to require neither 
army nor navy to ensure its safety, and a people so 



22 Triumphant Democracy. 

educated and advanced as to value the victories of 
peace. 

The student of American affairs to-day sees no in- 
fluences at work save those which make for closer and 
closer union. The Republic has solved the problem 
of governing large areas by adopting the federal, or 
home-rule system, and has proved to the world that 
the freest self-government of the parts produces the 
strongest government of the whole. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 

" From biological truths it may be inferred that the eventual mixture 
of the allied varieties of the Ar}'an race forming the population, will pro- 
duce a finer type of man than has hitherto existed, and a type of man 
more plastic, more adaptable, more capable of undergoing the modifica- 
tions needful for complete social life. I think that, whatever difficulties 
they may have to surmount and whatever tribulations they may have to 
pass through, the Americans may reasonably look forward to a time when 
they will have produced a civilization grander than any the world has 
known." — Herbert Spencer. 

Fortunately for the American people they are 
essentially British. I trust they are evermore to re- 
main truly grateful for this crowning mercy. The asser- 
tion of the historian of the Norman Conquest that the 
chief difference between the Briton and the American 
is that the former has crossed but one ocean, the latter 
two, is something more than a mere dictum ; it is capa- 
ble of actual demonstration. Two and a half centuries 
ago the American population was British with a very 
small intermixture of French and Dutch. In 1776, 
when the colonies informed the world of the great 
truth that " all men are created equal," and set up an 
independent republic, without king or aristocracy, or 
any other of the political evils of the past, the popula- 
tion had reached three millions. In 1840 it had grown, 



24 Triumpha7it Democracy. 

almost entirely by natural increase, to fourteen millions 
of white people. There were then three million colored 
slaves. That these fourteen million whites were almost 
purely of British origin is shown by the small amount of 
immigration up to that date. Previous to 1820, when 
immigration returns were first made, it is estimated that 
the total number of immigrants to that date had not 
exceeded a quarter of a million, and most of these were 
British. Between 1820 and 1830 there arrived only a 
hundred and forty-four thousand ; and during the next 
decade six hundred thousand, nearly all British, for the 
German and other Continental exodus had not then 
begun. It was not till after 1840 that immigration 
began on a large scale. 

Beginning then in 1840, with an almost purely British 
race, let us trace the ingredients which up to the pres- 
ent time have gone to make the American of to-day, 
differentiated as he is and yet only British " with a dif 
ference.'* 

The total number of immigrants to the United 
States between 1840 and 1880 was a little more than 
nine millions, fifty-five per cent, of whom were British. 
Just note this surprising truth. Lead into one the 
rivulets which swell the American population from all 
other parts of the world, and out of the little British 
Isles comes a stream mightier than all the others in its 
flow. Glorious mother ! with her own heart's blood she 
feeds her child. 



The Ame7^tcan People, 25 

The position may then be stated in round figures'^ 
in the following form : 

Of almost purely British origin in 1840 . . . . 14,196,000 
Increase at 3 per cent, per annum to 1880 . . . 11,850,000 
British immigration 1840 to 1880, with natural increase 
estimated at 3 per cent, per annum upon each year's 
arrivals up to 1880 ....... 9,175,000 

Total British blood 35,221,000 

Other than British immigration, 1840 to 1880 with in- 
crease estimated at 3 per cent, per annum . . 7,506,000 

42,727,000 

Thus the American of to-day is certainly more than four- 
fifths British in his ancestry. The other fifth is princt 
pally German ; for more than three millions of these 
educated, thrifty, and law-abiding citizens were received 
between 1840 and 1880, almost as many as from Ireland. 
From all countries other than Britain and Germany, 
the immigration is scarcely worth taking into account ; 
for during the forty years noted the total number was 
little more than a million; France and Sweden and Nor- 
way contributed about three hundred thousand each. 
But this non-British blood has even less than its pro- 

* These figures are arrived at by taking the number of native whites 
and of immigrants each year, beginning 1840, and adding three per cent., 
which is about the natural rate of increase. The number of native births 
and of immigrants arriving the following year is then added, three per 
cent, again allowed, and so on up to 1880. The figures have been care- 
fully verified, and it is believed that by this mode the truth has been 
reached, since the result corresponds with the census of 1880, which shows 
43,475,000 whites. 



26 Triumphant Democracy, 

portlonal influence in forming the national character, 
especially in its political phase ; because the language, 
literature, laws, and institutions are English. It may, 
however, safely be averred that the small mixture of 
foreign races is a decided advantage to the new race, 
for even the British race is improved by a slight cross. 
Give me a British foundation, the beef-eater, to begin 
with, the stolid or, — if you will — stupid mind of the 
Philistine of dear Matthew Arnold's aversion, only 
partially open to the sweetness and light of life, slow 
as an elephant, tough as a rhinoceros, awkward as a 
mule and just as cantankerous, but possessed of an 
honest, courageous, well-meaning, and above all, truth- 
telling nature. A strange combination of the lion and 
the lamb, this Islander, — savage and sentimentalist in 
one. " It's a fine day, let's kill something," roars the 
savage — his daily remark: for months at a time, and 
his daily practice too, for even the best educated Briton 
(with a few exceptions of the Spencer, Balfour, and 
Arnold type) has not yet risen in his recreations beyond 
shooting half-tame birds, '' for the fun of the thing." 
And yet their typical hero, dying on the deck of the 
Victory, murmurs, " Kiss me. Hardy," as sweetly as 
a woman, and passes to the abode of heroes with a 
warrior's kiss upon his lips. And Nelson's antipode, 
fat Jack Falstaff — to show how extremes meet — so 
true to nature is Shakespeare — " ababbled o' green 
fields," as he left us ! There's genuine tenderness and 



The Americaii People, 27 

love in all these island mastiiYs. And theirs is the one 
trait par excellence without which we say to a man or 
race — " unstable as water, thou shalt not excel." The 
Briton is stable. What he sets about to do he does, 
or dies in the attempt. Concentration is his peculiarity. 
He may not gain very fast, but he is a veritable ratchet 
wheel ; every inch he gains he holds. There's no slip 
back in him. Nor does he lose in the race by lateral 
motion. The tortoise beats the hare, of course ; the 
hare zig-zags. No zig-zag in John Bull. He does not 
like to go round a mountain even when it is the easier 
way ; he digs through. The hunter who found tempo- 
rary safety when attacked by a bear in catching it by 
the tail and swinging round with the would-be too af- 
fectionate monster, called to his companions to come 
and " help him to let go." By this sign we know he 
wasn't a Britisher, for it never occurs to the true 
Briton that in the nature of things he can voluntarily 
let go of anything. He would have been in with that 
bear for the whole Vv^ar, '* bound to fight it out on that 
line if it took all summer," as General Grant put it. 
And note it, fellow-citizens, he was a Grant. There 
came in the Scotch blood of that tenacious, self-con- 
tained, stubborn force, which kept pegging av/ay, al- 
ways certain of final victory, because he knew that he 
could not divert himself, even if he wished, from the 
task he had undertaken. His very nature forbade 
retreat. Thus stood the sturdy, moody Scotch-Ameri- 



28 Triumphant Democracy, 

can of steady purpose, fighting through to the finish 
with no " let go " in his composition, as that EngHsh- 
American Lincohi did — for Uncle Abe's family came 
from Norfolk — in the wider field of national policy 
when he, too, " kept his course unshaked of motion." 
This master trait of the British race shows resplend- 
ently in Lincoln, the greatest political genius of our 
era — greatest, judged either by the inherent qualities 
of the man, or by the material results of his adminis- 
tration. Even Bismarck's reorganization of Germany 
dealt with far less imposing, far less gigantic forces than 
those which Lincoln was called upon to control. Nor 
has Bismarck achieved the highest degree of political 
success; he has not harmonized — fused into one united 
whole the people he has consolidated, as Lincoln 
did. Flis weapons have been those of force alone — 
blood and iron his cry ; even in peace a master solely 
by brutal force. Lincoln was as generous, as con- 
ciliatory, as gentle in peace as he was always sad and 
merciful ; yet ever immovable in war. Bismarck excited 
the fears of the masses ; Lincoln won their love. The 
one a rude conqueror only; the other not only that, but 
also the guider of the highest and best aspirations of 
his people. With monarchical Bismarck *' might made 
right;" with republican Lincoln " right made might." 
That's the difference. Hence the fame of one is to be 
ephemeral ; that of the other immortal. 

The American fortunately has, in the German, 



The American People, 29 

French, and other races which have contributed to 
his make-up, the lacking ingredients which confer upon 
him a much less savage and more placable nature than 
that of the original Briton. To this slight strain of for- 
eign blood, and to the more stimulating effects of his 
brighter climate (which caused an English friend once 
to remark that temperance is no virtue in the Amer- 
ican since he breathes champagne), together with the 
more active play of forces in a new land under po- 
litical institutions which make the most of men, we 
must attribute the faculty observed in him by Matthew 
Arnold, of thinking straighter and seeing clearer, and 
also of acting more promptly than the original stock, for 
the American is nothing if not logical. He gets hold 
of the underlying principle, and, reasoning from that, 
he goes ahead to conclusion. He wants everything 
laid down by square and compass, and in political in- 
stitutions something that is '' fair all around," neither 
advantages nor disadvantages, but universal equality. 

Toleration in the Briton is truly admirable ; the 
leading Radical and the leading Tory-Democrat are 
found dining with each other, perhaps may be found in 
the same cabinet one of these days, since extremes 
meet. Well, the American is even more tolerant. 
Politics never divide people. Once in four years he 
warms up and takes sides, opposing hosts confront each 
other and a stranger would naturally think that only 
violence could result whichever side won. The morn- 



30 Triumphant Democracy, 

Ing after the election his arm is upon his opponent's 
shoulder and they are chaffing each other. All be- 
comes as calm as a summer sea. He fights '^ rebels " 
for four years and as soon as they lay down their arms 
invites them to his banquets. Not a life is sacrificed 
to feed his revenge. Jefferson Davis, educated at the 
National Military Academy and a deserter from the 
State, is allowed to drag on his weary life in merited 
oblivion. No drop of martyr's blood embitters the 
wayward South and breeds the wish for revenge. " We 
shall give mankind/' said Secretary Seward, " an exam- 
ple of such magnanimity as it has never seen." He 
had no monarchy, no aristocracy, no military class 
urging sacrifice to appease its offended majesty ; he had 
the democracy behind him with its generous instincts 
preaching forgiveness, and hence no drop of blood was 
shed. The American never cherishes resentment, but 
is willing always not only to forgive but to forget, 
the latter not less than half the struggle, for as our 
humorist very justly observes : '' the man who forgives 
but don t forget is trying to settle with the Lord for 
fifty cents on the dollar." Brother Jonathan pays the 
full dollar. 

The generally diffused love of music which charac- 
terizes America is largely the outcome of the German 
and Continental contingent for, with all the phlegm 
of the Briton, there is in the German a part of his 
nature " touched to fine issues." He loves music, is 



The American People. 31 

highly sociable, very domestic at home, and at his best 
in the bosom of his family. Most valuable of all he is 
well educated and has excellent habits, is patient, in- 
dustrious, peaceful, and law-abiding. Another import- 
ant characteristic of this race is the alacrity with which 
they adopt American ideas. The vast majority have 
already done so ere they sailed westward. The German 
loves his native country, but hates its institutions. 
Prince Bismarck's yoke is neither light nor easy. Uni- 
versal military service, the blood-tax of monarchies, is 
calculated to set the best minds among the bone and 
sinew to thinking over the political situation, and O, 
America ! how bright and alluring you appear to the 
down-trodden masses of Europe, with your equal laws, 
equal privileges and the halo of peace surrounding 
your brow ! What a bribe you offer to the most loyal- 
minded man to renounce his own country, to share a 
heritage so fair ! The emigrant may not succeed in 
the new land, or succeed as the Irishman did, who 
replied to the inquir>^ of his friend as to whether the 
Republic was the country for the poor man : " It is, in- 
dade ; look at me, when I came I hadn't a rag to my 
back, and now I'm just covered with them." Many 
new arrivals fail, many would succeed better in their 
old homes. America is only a favored land for the 
most efficient ; drones have no place in her hive, but in 
whatever the emigrant may fail, whether in securing 
wealth, or home, whether he remain poor or lose health, 



32 Triumphant Democracy. 

whether his lot be happy or miserable, there remains 
one great prize which cannbt escape him, one blessing 
so bright, so beneficent, as to shed upon the darkest 
career the glory of its entrancing rays and compensate 
for the absence of material good. Upon every exile 
from home falls the boon of citizenship, equal with the 
highest. The Republic may not give wealth, or happi- 
ness ; she has not promised these, it is the freedom to 
pursue these, not their realization, which the Declara- 
tion of Independence claims ; but, if she does not make 
the emigrant happy or prosperous, this she can do and 
does do for every one, she makes him a citizen, a 
man. 

The Frenchman is not a migrating animal. It is 
much to the credit of America that it has attracted even 
three hundred thousand of these home-keeping Gauls. 
The number is so small that their influence upon the 
national character cannot be otherwise than trifling. 
They are the cooks and the epicures of the world and 
to them America may well be grateful for the standard 
maintained by the " Delmonicos," the French restau- 
rants of the principal cities. No country has experi- 
enced so clearly as this, till recently, that while God 
sent the victuals, the cooks came from another source. 
These were not from France, nor under French influ- 
ence in the former days. Even yet, west of Chicago, 
the cookery is shameful, but thanks to the French- 
man, the better modes travel westward rapidly. Na- 



The Amer{ca7t People. 33 

ture never furnished to any nation so great a variety 
of food, yet no civilized people ever cooked so badly. 

In women's dress, for the few male " dudes " affect 
English fashions, our Gallic brethren give evidence of 
their influence in the direction of good taste. The 
verdict of my English friends invariably is that the 
American woman dresses so well — so much better than 
her English sister. We must credit the French citizen 
with this flattering verdict. 

No other race than the French and the German (in- 
cluding Swedes and Norwegians, who are also Teutons) 
has reached these shores in sufficient numbers to im- 
press even a trace of its influence upon the national 
character. 

The inability of the American race to maintain it- 
self and its dependence upon immigration for its future 
have furnished texts for certain foreign writers. But 
the facts are against them. Of the fifty-six million 
Americans now living, seven-eighths, or forty-nine mil- 
lions, are native born. One-eighth, or seven millions, 
first saw the light in foreign lands. The colored popu- 
lation is about equal to the foreign born. The census 
returns show that the rate of increase among native- 
born Americans has been as follows: 1850 to i860, 
32j^ per cent.; 1870 to 1880, 31I per cent. In no Eu- 
ropean country does the rate of increase approach 
these figures, which are about the average rate of 
increase for the entire population of America, native 
3 



34 Triumphafit Democracy, 

and foreign, which proves that the native American 
is as proHfic as the foreign born in America, while 
both are more proUfic than the inhabitants of any 
European country. Notwithstanding the enormous 
number of immigrants which yearly flow into the 
country, the native births are seven to eight times 
greater in number than the foreign arrivals. Besides 
this, as we have seen, more than half of the foreign 
arrivals are British ; so that the American people 
are ever becoming more purely British in origin. 

The value to the country of the annual foreign 
influx, however, is very great indeed. This is more 
apt to be under than overestimated. During the 
ten years between 1870 and 1880 the number of im- 
migrants averaged two hundred and eighty thousand 
per annum. In one year, 1882, nearly three times this 
number (789,000) arrived. Sixty per cent. (473,400) of 
this mass were adults between fifteen and forty years 
of age. These adults were surely worth $1,500 (^300) 
each — for in former days an efficient slave sold for this 
sum — making a money value of $710,000,000 (;£"i42,- 
000,000), to which may be safely added $i,000 (;^20o) 
each, or $315,000,000 (^63,000,000) for the remaining 
forty per cent, of the host. Further, it is estimated 
that every immigrant brings in cash an average of $125 
(^25). The cash value of immigrants upon this basis for 
the year 1882 exceeded $1,125,000,000 (^225,000,000). 
True, 1882 was an exceptional year, but the average 



The American People » 35 

yearly augmentation of the Republic's wealth from 
immigrants, who seek its shores to escape the enormous 
taxation and military laws of monarchical governments, 
and to obtain under Republican institutions entire po- 
litical equality, is now more than twice as great as the 
total product of all the silver and gold mines in the 
world. Were the owners of every gold and silver mine 
in the world compelled to send to the Treasury at 
Washington, at their own expense, every ounce of the 
precious metals produced, the national wealth would 
not be enhanced one-half as much as it is from the 
golden stream which flows into the country every year 
through immigration. 

But the value of these peaceful invaders does not 
consist solely in their numbers or in the wealth which 
they bring. To estimate them aright *we must take 
into consideration also the superior character of those 
who immigrate. As the people who laid the founda- 
tion of the American Republic were extremists, fan- 
atics, if you will — men of advanced views intellectually, 
morally and politically, men whom Europe had rejected 
as dangerous — so the majority of emigrants to-day are 
men who leave their native land from dissatisfaction 
with their surroundings, and who seek here, under new 
conditions, the opportunity for development denied 
them at home. The old and the destitute, the idle and 
the contented do not brave the waves of the stormy At- 
lantic, but sit helplessly at home, perhaps bewailing their 



36 Triumphant Democracy. 

hard fate, or, what is still more sad to see, aimlessly con- 
tented with it. The emigrant is the capable, energetic, 
ambitious, discontented man — the sectary, the refugee, 
the persecuted, the exile from despotism — who, long- 
ing to breathe the air of equality, resolves to tear 
himself away from the old home with its associations 
to found in hospitable America a new home under 
equal and just laws, which insure to him, and what, 
perhaps, counts with him and his wife for more, insure 
also to their children the full measure of citizenship, 
making them free men in a free state, possessed of 
every right and privilege. 

The true value of the men who emigrate is well 
understood by the ruling classes of the old world, 
who make every effort to prevent the exodus of so 
many able-bodied citizens. This is not from any 
fear of a depletion of population at home, for it 
has been conclusively shown that emigration does not 
tend to diminish the rate of increase in the country 
emigrated from, provided, of course, that the drain be 
not in excess of the natural fecundity of the human 
race, but rather from a well-grounded knowledge that 
it takes away the best of the population, the very 
bone and sinew of the race. Fortunately for America, 
these efforts have proved of little avail, and the 
steadily flowing stream of Britons, Teutons, and Latins, 
is assuming greater proportions as the years roll on, 
and will be limited in future not by the emigrating 



The American People, 3*7 

capacity of European nations, but by the superior 
attractions which the Republic can offer. So long as 
America presents to the world the spectacle of a coun- 
try with a strong yet free government, where social 
order prevails, where taxation is at a minimum, where 
education is every man's birthright, where higher re- 
wards are offered to labor and enterprise than else- 
where, and where equality of political rights is secured, 
so long will the best of the workers seek its shores. 
A portion of the stream may be diverted in time to 
other countries, when such offer equal advantages, 
political and material, but the United States have the 
advantage in this — that the current has set this way 
for more than half a century, and emigrants are apt to 
follov/ the course of those who have preceded them, 
those already established attracting their friends and 
relatives, and often providing the means for them to 
cross the ocean. 

Besides being ambitious, energetic, and industrious, 
the emigrant is physically a strong and healthy man. 
The halt, the deaf, and the blind are not prompted to 
leave their European homes, nor does the confirmed 
invalid often seek a grave in a foreign land. This influ- 
ence, which has been potent since the days of the Pil- 
grim Fathers, has resulted in a freedom from physical de- 
fect in America that is very noteworthy. Statistics show 
that the proportion of blind, deaf, and dumb to the 
total population is less than half what it is in Europe. 



38 Triumphant Democracy, 

The capacity of America to absorb the population 
which is flowing into her, as well as the great natural 
increase of her people, cannot be more strikingly illus- 
trated than by a comparison. Belgium has four hun- 
dred and eighty-two inhabitants to the square mile, 
Britain two hundred and ninety, the United States, 
exclusive of Alaska, less than fourteen. In the ten 
years from 1870 to 1880, eleven and a half millions 
were added to the population of America. Yet these 
only added three persons to each square mile of terri- 
tory; and should America continue to double her 
population every thirty years instead of every twenty- 
five years as hitherto, seventy years must elapse before 
she will attain the density of Europe. The population 
will then reach two hundred and ninety millions. If 
the density of Britain ever be attained, there will be 
upwards of a thousand million Americans, for at the 
present every Briton has two acres and every American 
forty-four acres of land as his estate. 

These forecasts are not only possible, they are 
extremely probable. The progress made since 1880 in 
the settlement of new regions is putting every preced- 
ing period into the shade. It is simply marvellous, and 
even those who are in the midst of it have dififiiculty in 
realizing how great it is. Look at the great North-west. 
Scarcely a decade has passed since it was represented 
as a barren, icy plain, wild, inhospitable and scarcely 
habitable. The railway has changed it as by a wiz- 



The American People. 39 

ard's touch. Minnesota has more than a milHon Inhabi- 
tants. The population of Dakota has quadrupled in 
five years, and is now half a million. Towns are spring- 
ing up with magical rapidity. Its wheat crop last year 
was thirty million bushels — twice as great as the whole 
crop of Egypt. Montana is barely known by name in 
England. Last year — in twelve short months — her 
population increased from eighty-five thousand to one 
hundred and ten thousand ; her cattle interests from 
four hundred and seventy-five thousand to eight hun- 
dred and fifty thousand, and her output of minerals 
from less than $10,000,000 to more than $23,000,000 
(;^2,ooo,ooo to ;;^4,6oo,ooo). Her taxable property is 
$50,000,000 (ii" 1 0,000,000). Wyoming, Idaho, Washing- 
ton, and Oregon, are being developed almost as rapidly. 
Other parts of the West have advanced at even a 
greater pace. The aggregate population of seven 
States tributary to Kansas City increased in one year 
(1879-80) from fewer than five and a half millions to 
more than seven millions. Since 1880, the value of cat- 
tle in the same region has advanced from $9,000,000 to 
$14,500,000 (;^ 1, 800,000 to ^^2,900,000), and of sheep 
from $6,000,000 to $9,500,000 (;^ 1, 200,000 to ^1,900,- 
000). At these rates of advance the " Wild West " is 
rapidly becoming a thing of the past, and in a few years 
it will be a thickly-settled land. 

Figures are poor aids to the comprehension of 
great truths. The comparative chart printed herewith 



40 Triumphant Democracy. 

by kind permission of its author, Mr. Edward Atkin- 
son, will help the reader to a conception of the pos- 
sibilities of this great continent. It represents the 
area of Texas in conjunction with the areas of other 
American States and European countries. How petty 
some of the latter seem beside majestic Texas ! And 
yet Texas is but one of the forty-six territorial divisions 
of the Republic. Observe Montenegro, which at various 
times has excited all Europe, and provoked enormous 
bloodshed ; it would hardly make a fly-speck on the 
map of Texas, and note that the whole United King- 
dom could be planted in this one State of the Union, 
and still leave plenty of room around it. Notice, too, 
gentle reader, how . all the world's cotton could be 
grown in the State of Texas alone, without greatly 
affecting its capacity for other productions. It is 
scarcely overdrawing the picture to imagine that in 
a few decades two or three hundred million repub- 
licans will be living in amity, under one government, 
on the great American Continent. 

In view of these startling probabilities, it would 
seem advisable that the statesmen of the old home, 
instead of bestowing so much of their attention on 
the petty States of Europe, should look thoughtfully 
westv/ard sometimes to the doings of their ov/n kith 
and kin, who are rapidly building up a power which 
none can hope to rival. 

We must not pass without mention, our fellow- 



The American People. 41 

citizens of African descent, who, as we have seen, are 
equal in number to the entire foreign population — one- 
eighth of the whole. These, as the world knows, were 
all slaves a few years ago ; but Abraham Lincoln, with 
one stroke of the pen, raised them from the condition 
of slavery to that of free men. They now exercise the 
suffrage just as other citizens do. There is not a privi- 
lege possessed by any citizen which is not theirs. The 
English poet says: 

" Slaves cannot breathe in England ; if their lungs 
Receive our air, that moment they are free; 
They touch our country, and their shackles fall." 

No more can they exist in England's child-land ; and 
the Declaration of Independence, asserting the freedom 
and equality of men, is no longer a mockery. 

Grave apprehensions were entertained that freedom 
suddenly granted to these poor slaves Avould be abused. 
Those best acquainted with their habits, the Southern 
slave-holders, predicted, as a result of freedom, univer- 
sal idleness, riot, and dissipation. It was asserted that 
the negro would not work save under the lash of the 
•overseer. None of these gloomy predictions have 
been fulfilled — every one of them has been falsified. 
There is now more cotton grown than ever, and at less 
cost. Under the reisfn of freedom the material re- 
sources of the South have increased faster than ever 
before. Indeed, so surprised were most Americans 
by the result of the last census that it was insisted 



42 Triumphant Democracy, 

mistakes had been made: the figures could not be 
right, and in some districts the enumeration was made 
a second time, with the result of verifying the former 
figures. The number of Congressmen to each State 
is determined every ten years by the population shown 
by the census. When the census of 1880 was made 
the general expectation was that the Northern States 
would increase their proportionate representation ; but 
the Southern States not only held their own, but actu- 
ally gained. The ninety-eight Southern representa- 
tives were increased by thirteen, while the one hundred 
and ninety-five Northern representatives gained only 
eighteen — only half the Southern ratio of increase. 
Even the unexampled growth of the North-western 
States was insufficient to give the Northern States a 
proportionately increased legislative power. So much 
for freedom versus slavery ! 

The universal testimony is that the former slaves 
rapidly develop the qualities of freemen and exhibit, 
in a surprising degree, the capacity to manage their 
own affairs. Many of them at once arranged with 
their former masters to work a part of the plantation 
upon shares. Others bargained for the purchase of 
strips of land. They are now quite orderly and well- 
behaved, and much more industrious than before. 

It seems to the writer but yesterday since he was 
compelled to listen to arguments from good men in 
favor of the system of slavery, as he is yet doomed 



The American People, 43 

sometimes to hear defences of monarchy and aristoc- 
racy, and to hear them contend that it was best for the 
black race. Their contentedness and happiness under 
masters were always boldly asserted. A well-known 
judge in Ohio was noted for his defence of slavery, 
upon the ground that the slaves knew what was best 
for themselves, and should be allowed to remain in the 
condition which admittedly brought them a degree of 
happiness seldom, if ever, attained by laborers in the 
North. His conversion to the opposite opinion was 
suddenly brought about by an interview with a run- 
away who had crossed the Ohio River from Kentucky, 
and entered the village in which our friend resided. 
Said the judge to the fugitive : 

** What did you run away for?" 

"Well, Judge, 'wanted to be free." 

*' Oh ! wanted to be free, did you ? Bad master, I 
suppose." 

^' O no ; berry good man, massa." 

" You had to work too hard, then ? " 

"O no; fair day's work." 

"Well, you hadn't a good home ? " 

" Hadn't I, though ! You should see my pretty 
cabin in Kentucky ! " 

"Well, you didn't get enough to eat?" 

" Oh, golly ! not get enough to eat in Kentucky ! 
Plenty to eat." 

The judge, somewhat annoyed: "You had a good 



44 Triumphant Democracy, 

master, plenty to eat, wasn't overworked, a good home. 
I don't see what on earth you wanted to run away for." 
''Well, judge, I left de situation down dar open. 
You can go right down and get it." 

The result was a five-dollar note given to help the 
unreasonable slave who had left well-being behind to 
become a man. Henceforth the Judge was an ardent 
abolitionist, recognizing that 

" Freedom hath a thousand charms to show, 
That slaves, howe'er contented, never know." 

The proportion of the colored to the white element 
steadily grows less and less. In 1790 it was twenty- 
seyen per cent, of the whole, in 1830 it had fallen to 
eighteen per cent., in 1880 it was only thirteen per cent. 
While the total white population of the country has 
risen from ten and a half to forty-three and a half 
millions in fifty years, the number of the colored popu- 
lation has only risen from two and a quarter to six 
and a half millions. This steady decrease results from 
tv/o causes. First, the colored race receives no immi- 
grants, but is restricted wholly to native increase for its 
growth ; and, second, it has been proved that although 
their birth-rate is greater than that of the whites, it is 
more than balanced by their higher death-rate. The 
increase of colored people from i860 to 1880 was but 
forty-eight per cent., against sixty-one per cent, in- 
crease of the whites. 



The American People, 45 

It is too soon yet to judge whether, with supe- 
rior knowledge and more provident habits flowing 
from freedom, this excessive d3ath rate will not be con- 
siderably reduced ; but the conclusion seems unavoid- 
able that the colored race cannot hold its own numeri- 
cally against the whites and must fall farther and far- 
ther behind. Adaptive as man is, we can scarcely expect 
the hotter climate of the Southern States, in which 
the colored people live, to produce as hardy a race as 
that of the cooler States of the North. 

We close, then, showing in the Republic a race es- 
sentially British in origin, but fast becoming more and 
more American in birth, the foreign-born elements 
sinking into insignificance and destined soon to become 
of no greater relative magnitude, perhaps, in proportion 
to the native-born American than the foreign-born resi- 
dents of Britain are at present to the native born. The 
American republican can never be other in his blood 
and nature than a true Briton, a real chip of the old 
block, a new edition of the original work, and, as is the 
manner of new editions, revised and improved, and, 
like his prototype in the thousand and one ways, some 
of them grotesque in their manifestations, which link 
the daughter to the mother, who, seen together, im- 
press beholders not so much as two separate and dis- 
tinct individualities as two members of the one grand 
family. 



CHAPTER III. 

CITIES AND TOWNS. 

'* It is indeed a thrilling thought for a man of the elder England to 
see what a home the newest home of his people is. The heart swells, 
the pride of kinship rises, as he sees that it is his own folk which has 
done more than any other folk to replenish the earth and to subdue it. 
He is no Englishman at heart, he has no true feeling of the abiding tie of 
kindred, who deems that the glory and greatness of the child is other than 
part of the glory and greatness of the parent." — Freeman. 

America forms no exception to the rule that popu- 
lation in civilized lands gravitates towards great centres. 
Though her immense agricultural development might 
have been expected to arrest this movement and divert 
population to the rural districts, such has not been the 
case. Despite the temptations to rural life offered by 
fertile land at nominal prices, towns have grown dur- 
ing the last half century much faster than the country. 
The dull, dreary round of life upon the farm is found 
intolerable by the young man whose intellectual facul- 
ties have been awakened by education. The active 
mind seeks companionship with other minds and the 
pleasurable excitements of city life. Most great men, 
it is true, have been born and brought up in the 
country, but it is equally true that very few great men 
have remained there beyond their teens. The country 



Cities and Towns, 47 

IS just the place for the extremes of life — at the begin- 
ning in childhood and early youth, when the body is to 
be nurtured, and also at the end, " when nature turns 
again to earth " in ripe old age and retires from the 
fray to 

" Ruminate in sober thought 
On all he's seen, and heard, and wrought." 

In 1830 only six and a half per cent, of the popula- 
tion lived in towns of eight thousand inhabitants and 
upwards; in 1880 the proportion had risen to twenty- 
two per cent. Thus, nearly one person in every four 
in America is now a member of a hive of more than 
eight thousand human beings. Fifty years ago this 
was true of but one in fifteen, for fourteen out of fif- 
teen lived in the country or in small villages. 

This is a stupendous change and marks the develop- 
ment of the Republic from the first stage of homogen- 
eity of pastoral pursuits into the heterogeneous occu- 
pations of a more highly civilized state. The nation is 
now complete, as it were, in itself, and ready for inde- 
pendent action. Its mechanical and inventive genius 
has full scope in the thousand and one diversified pur- 
suits which a civilized community necessarily creates, 
and which necessitate the gathering of men together in 
masses. 

The American, however, need not fear the unhealthy 
or abnormal growth of cities. He need not imitate the 
example of those who advocated legislative measures to 



48 Triumphant Democracy, 

prevent the growth of London, which Cobbett called a 
wart upon the hand of England. The free play of 
economic laws is keeping all quite right, for the town 
gained upon the country population only one-fourth as 
fast during the last decade (1870 to 1880) as in the pre- 
vious one. 

Oh, these grand, immutable, all-wise laws of natural 
forces, how perfectly they work if human legislators 
would only let them alone ! But no, they must be 
tinkering. One day they would protect the balance of 
power in Europe by keeping weak, small areas apart 
and independent — an impossible task, for petty States 
must merge into the greater — political is as certain as 
physical gravitation ; the next day it is silver in Amer- 
ica, which our sage rulers would make of greater intrin- 
sic value. So our governors, all over the world, are at 
Sisyphus's work — ever rolling the stone uphill to see 
it roll back to its proper bed at the bottom. 

That the country held its own so well in the compe- 
tition with the towns during the last decade is partly 
due to the fact that the enormous profits made under 
an improved system of agriculture held the rural popu- 
lation to the soil. The general depression of manufact- 
ures also checked settlement in towns, and forced popu- 
lation into the country. The commercial panic of 1873 
drove hundreds of thousands from the crowded cities 
of the East to the unoccupied plains of the West. 
Train-load after train-load of native emigrants were to 



Cities a7id Towns, 49 

be seen passing west to become farmers. With a re- 
turn to normal conditions we may expect to find the 
towns absorbing m.uch more than an equal share. 

It is always a result of industrial depression in 
America that the towns are relieved of surplus popu- 
lation which in older countries remains in poverty and 
distress to swell the ranks of the unemployed. Horace 
Greeley's advice, '^ Go West, young man ! " is followed. 
One needs however to add to it, '* and stay there," to 
complete the matter. The equilibrium is thus restored 
between producers and consumers, and prosperity to 
both follows. If there be too much food it is un- 
profitable to grow more cereals, and fewer people be- 
come farmers ; if the market be overstocked with man- 
ufactures, manufacturing becomes unprofitable and 
fewer engage in it. The population, meanwhile increas- 
ing at the rate of nearly two millions per annum, soon 
requires the surplus, be it food or manufactures. Amer- 
ica possesses hundreds of thousands of acres of virgin 
soil ready for the plough. Like the fabled Antaeus, her 
power of recuperation lies in the earth: let her touch 
but that and her giant strength is restored. This will 
continue to be so until her population becomes as dense 
as that of Europe. 

According to Dr. Swainson Fisher, there were not, in 
1835, five thousand white inhabitants in all the vast ter- 
ritory between Lake Michigan and the Pacific Ocean, a 
region half as large as Europe. Now it is covered with 



50 Triumphant Democracy. 

an agricultural population, and contains many populous 
cities, including Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul, to 
say nothing of the cities of the Pacific coast. Of the 
State of Wisconsin, occupying a part of this territory, a 
member of the Wisconsin Historical Society wrote, 
thirty years ago : 

" In the summer of 1836, with a comrade, I camped at the 
head of Mendota or Fourth Lake, within six miles of the spot 
where the Capitol now stands (1856), at which time there was not 
within twenty miles of that point a single white inhabitant, and 
none within the present limits of Dane County, an area of twelve 
hundred and forty square miles, except one family." 

Dane County, then an uninhabited wilderness, con- 
tained in 1880 a population of more than sixty thou- 
sand, while Wisconsin itself had a million and a half. 
In 1880 the density of population in this young State 
exceeded that of Maine and nearly equalled that of 
such old settled States as Georgia, Alabama, and West 
Virginia. 

The United States had no city in 1830 which could 
boast a population of a quarter of a million. Even New 
York had but two hundred and two thousand. In that 
year there were but fourteen towns with more than 
twelve thousand inhabitants each ; in truth, but fifty- 
five years ago, the Republic could boast only of a few 
villages. In 1880 there were one hundred and seventy- 
six such towns, and to-day the number exceeds two 
hundred. 



Cities and Towns, 51 

New York city in 1880 was the only millionaire in 
heads, though Philadelphia now claims that she has 
reached that distinction. The census of 1880 accredits 
the Empire City with fewer than a million and a quarter 
inhabitants ; but if the population within a radius of 
eight miles of the City Hall were included, she would be 
credited with fully two and a quarter millions. Brook- 
lyn, Jersey City, and other suburbs, divided from the 
city by rivers, are under separate municipal govern- 
ments, but they are none the less outgrowths of the 
great centre. Thus New York ranks next to monster 
London as a busy hive of human beings. Every decade 
sees an addition of half a million people to each of 
these two vast aggregations of humanity. The increase 
of New York in actual figures is equal to that of Lon- 
don, which makes the ratio of increase to population 
double. While London has taken since 1840 to dou- 
ble her population. New York, including the suburbs, 
has doubled hers In half that time. So that if the 
present rate of increase be maintained, forty years 
hence London will have doubled her present population 
once and New York tv/ice : their populations will then 
be about equal. It is a neck and neck race between 
the two emporiums which the world of 1920 is to see, 
with the odds in favor of New York. It is easier 
for her to twice double her two than for London to 
double her four millions, and besides, the goddess For- 
tune, true to her sex, may confidently be expected to 



52 IViumphant Democracy. 

breathe her secret prayers lor the younger aspirant. 
She is fond of youth and fickle, and really seems dis- 
posed to be off with the old love, dear old smoky 
London, and on with the new, bright, rosy, gallant 
New York. Let us hope she may illustrate another 
phase not inconsistent with her sex, and continue as 
hitherto to smile upon both suitors. If Jack has his 
favorite in ever}- port, surely our goddess may be al- 
lowed one in the East and one in the great West. 

Of the fifty largest cities of the L^nion, the least with 
a population of 36.000 in iSSo, fifteen had no existence 
in 1S30; they were not born. Their sites were either 
the unbroken prairie or an Indian settlement, with a 
fort and a few log huts. Chicago is the most famous 
example. Fifty-five years ago it was a trading post, 
where trappers and Indians bartered their pelts for 
fire-w*ater and ammunition. I knew one of Chicago's 
first settlers well ; and have often heard him speak ot 
the little fort and the scattering log huts which marked 
the city's site some sixty years ago. There was 
scarcely a whice woman in the settlement when he 
began trading with the Indians. In 1833 the streets 
of the projected town had been staked out, but no 
graiding had been done, not even a dirt road thrown up. 
Such, however, was the growth of ** this little mush- 
room town," as an early writer calls it, that in 1846 it 
was noted that '* eight years ago ^^1838^ the ground 
upon which the entire city of Chicago stands could 



Cities and Towns. 53 

have been bought for a sum now (1846; demanded for 
a front of six feet on one of the streets." Tradition 
tells of an early settler who averred that he had 
seen the time when he could have bought the '' hull 
tarnation swamp " for a pair of old boots. To the 
inquiry — " Why didn't you ? " he had the entirely 
adequate reply : '* Ah, stranger, I hadn't the boots." 
How many chances in life do we miss just for the want 
of the boots. Moral : Get the boots. 

In 1840 the population of Chicago v/as 4,500; ten 
years later, 30,000 ; in ten years more, i I2,ooo. It now 
exceeds 700,000. This splendid city, '* the Queen of 
the West," leads the world in three branches of indus- 
try ; she is pre-eminent as a lumber market, as a pro- 
vision market, and, strange antithesis, as a manufactory 
of steel rails. Such a combination of "greatnesses" 
surely the world has not seen. Her statistics show the 
receipt of nearly two thousand million feet of lumber 
and nine hundred million shingles per annum. Her 
yearly receipts of grain approach two hundred million 
bushels. Twenty-six million bushels can be laid away 
in her twenty-eight elevators, — a store which dwarfs 
the ostentatious garnering of the ancient Pharaohs a3 
much as her enormous shipments outnumber the sacks 
of corn which Joseph's brethren carried av/ay. Last 
year she received nearly two million cattle, a million 
sheep, and five million hogs, more than twenty-five 
thousand animals per day. So that there marches into 



54 Triumpha7it Democracy, 

Chicago every day in the year — Sundays and Satur< 
days included — a procession of victims, two miles and 
a half long — ten animals abreast. The cattle and hogs 
are mostly transformed into provisions before leaving 
Chicago. The year 1881 was an exceptionally good 
year for pork-packers, but a bad one for the hogs. 
Five and three quarter millions fell in Chicago alone, — 
an average of nineteen thousand a day : 

" The fittest place for man to die 
Is where he dies for man." 

The fittest place for a hog is evidently Chicago, 
for every minute of time, night and day — all the year 
round — thirteen of them, '' die for man," at that place 
of slaughter. 

Chicago has moreover three steel rail mills within 
the city limits, and a fourth within thirty miles. Their 
combined capacity exceeds 500,000 tons annually — 
sufficient to put a light steel rail '' girdle round the 
earth." There will probably be as many steel rails 
made in and about Chicago alone next year as one- 
half the total rail product of Great Britain. Her 
coat of arms should be : Barry of alternate steel rails 
and pine planks, proper ; over all, a pig rampant, gules. 
Motto, '' The Whole Hog." 

San Francisco is another mushroom. In 1844 fifty 
people were settled in log-huts on a barren tract of the 
Pacific coast. A few whalemen and north-east traders 



Cities and Towns, 55 

occasionally called at this settlement, * and bartered 
food and clothing for tallow, hides, and horns. Grad- 
ually the embryo village grew ; and in 1847 certain 
plots of ground on the water front were sold, the 
prices ranging from £\o to ;^20 per lot. Six years 
later, such was the rapid enhancement of values, infe- 
rior lots brought from i^i6oo to ^^"3200 ; from i^20 
to ^2,000 in fourteen years ; four small building 
plots bringing ^^240,000, equal to ;^6o,ooo per block. 
This was in the palmy days depicted by Colonel 
Mulberry Sellers, when you had but to lay out a town 
site into lots, every one of them a corner lot, and sit 
down and figure just how much money you wanted 
and then rake it in. Thirty-seven years sufficed to 
raise the settlement of fifty persons to a magnificent 
city with a quarter of a million inhabitants. The bar- 
tering of a few hides has grown into an annual trade 
exceeding twenty millions sterling. 

Jersey City, opposite New York, furnishes another 
example of rapid city growth. In 1840 the population 
was only 3,072 ; in 1880 it was 120,722. But Brooklyn, 
the corresponding suburb on the other side of New 
York harbor, has eclipsed every city, except Chicago, 
its population of 12,000 in 1830 having grown to 566,- 
000 in 1880. The growth of Cleveland, Ohio, has not 
been slow. In 1830 it had only 1,000 inhabitants; now 
it boasts 160,000. The finest avenues of residences are 
■in this city. After seeing all that the rest of the world 



56 Triumphant Democracy. 

has to offer in that respect, I pronounce EiicHd and 
Prospect Avenues in this lake city of Cleveland the 
grandest and most beautiful ; though the smaller Pros- 
pect Avenue in Milwaukee, and Delaware Avenue in 
Buffalo, and that in Detroit are very handsome indeed, 
and arp open for second and third prizes. 

The city of Milwaukee, with a present population of 
125,000, consisted in 1834 of two log-houses. In 1835 
it was laid out as a village ; and the next year we find 
it described as a hamlet of about two hundred inhabi- 
tants. At that time the only roads leading into the city 
were a few Indian trails. Once in a while a wagon 
came winding through from Chicago. But even at this 
infantile age Milwaukee had begun to display the enter- 
prise which has continued to distinguish it. In 1840 
the town could boast of one brick building — a small 
one-story dwelling-house. There were then eleven 
stores in the place. During the next ten years the 
population increased from 1,712 to 20,061. In 1841 
began the shipment of grain — a trade which has since 
attained an enormous development. In that year four 
thousand bushels of wheat — the first ever sent out of 
Wisconsin- —was exported ; but such was the imperfect 
provision for loading that this small shipment required 
three days to put on board ship. The trade thus 
begun, grew^ apace ; and three years later we find that 
Mr. Higby, a pioneer merchant, imported a grain ware- 
house from. Sheboygan. The character of this structure 



Cities and Towns. 57 

is shown by the fact that it was afterward carried about 
to several other places. The whole receipts for grain 
shipments at Milwaukee in that year did not equal 
those received in a single day fifteen years later, or, re- 
markable fact, in a single hour at present ! The receipts 
of grain at Milwaukee now approximate forty million 
bushels a year. It is taken out of ships and cars, car- 
ried to the top of the elevators, and weighed and 
poured into bags and bins at the rate of seven thousand 
bushels an hour, without any manual labor. Automatic 
machines are the giants who do the work. 

A unique man resides in Milwaukee, one so close- 
ly identified with its wonderful growth that he is 
thought of whenever that city is mentioned — Alexan- 
der Mitchell, who left Aberdeen, a young Scotch lad, 
some fifty years ago. He has one proud distinction of 
which he can never be deprived, for it can scarcely ever 
be expected in the history of the race that any develop- 
ment of material resources can equal that of the Ameri- 
can railway system. Alexander Mitchell has built more 
miles of railway than any man who has lived, is living, 
or who is ever to live. He began the work at Milwau- 
kee as President of the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway, 
a position which he still holds. It is scarcely necessary 
to add that the said Mitchell has not failed to hold on 
to a fair proportion of this gigantic property, for it has 
been noted that he is Scotch. When we reached 
Chicago with our Scotch guests two years ago we 



58 Triunipha7vt Democracy. 

found his special car — a much grander hotel than any 
saloon-carriage — waiting there subject to our orders. 
The conductor said his instructions were to go where 
we wished, stop and start on any train desired, and 
when we were done with him he was to return with his 
car to" Milwaukee. We spent days in that car, visited 
St. Paul in the North, and Davenport in the West, and 
did not traverse one mile of line which that Scotch boy 
had not built, and over wluch his word was not law. 
*' Scotland forever! " Mr. Mitchell is one of the dozen 
richest men in the world, a credit to Aberdeen, a credit 
to his native Scotland, a credit to his adopted America. 
A grand Republican he is, too. Staunch as Aberdeen 
granite there. No royal family or hereditary legislators 
for him, mind you. He is not the stuff out of which 
a " loyal subject " to another human being can be 
made ; or, if made, not the man to occupy that de- 
grading position long. He holds himself, as man, the 
equal of any monarch. A man whom all men honor. 

The adjoining State of Minnesota contained in 1880 
about 800,000 people, of which 88,000 resided in the 
capital, St. Paul, and its twin sister town, Minneapolis. 
In 1885 the State population had increased to eleven 
hundred thousand — 43 per cent, in five years. Greatest 
wonder of all, however, is the five years* growth of the 
city of Minneapolis. In 1880 its population was 47,000; 
in 1885, 130,000, a gain of over 176 per cent.! St. Paul 
increased from 41,000 to 111,000 — a gain of 168 per 



Cities and Towns. 59 

cent. Yet in 1848 this region was a wilderness, the en- 
tire territory, nearly twice the size of the present State, 
having only about 3,000 inhabitants. A trading house 
was built on the site of St. Paul in 1842, and round it 
gradually grew a small community of whites and half- 
breeds, engaged in barter with the Indians and trap- 
pers. In 1850 the population numbered 1,135. To 
quote the words of a writer of that period, '' St. Paul is 
in the wilderness. Look where you will, the primitive 
features of the surrounding country remain unchanged, 
and the wild animals and Indians still haunt the grounds 
to which ages of occupancy have given them a prescrip- 
tive right." A few miles away, a group of houses might 
have been seen clustering around the Falls of St. 
Anthony. There, in 1848, a saw-mill was put in opera- 
tion by the aid of a temporary dam built across the east 
channel of the river. As the forests fell before the 
lumberman's axe, and emigrant farmers brought in the 
plough, flouring mills were built at the falls, and Minne- 
apolis emerged from the country-village state. Checked 
in their growth by the war in 1861, and more seriously 
by the Sioux massacre of 1862, Minneapolis and St. 
Paul experienced renewed prosperity in 1864 and 1865, 
and since then the two towns have gone forward, march- 
ing across the dividing forest to meet each other, and 
will eventually mingle their suburbs, and form a city a 
dozen miles across, with a population of a million souls. 
The child is living who will see all this and more. 



6o Triumphant Democracy. 

As we have Alexander Mitchell dominating Mil< 
waukee, so no one can think of Minneapolis without 
recalling that notable family the " Washburn Brothers." 
Their career is typically American. These Washburns 
are a family indeed, seven sons, all of them men of 
mark. Several have distinguished themselves so greatly 
as to become part of their country's history. The fam- 
ily record includes a secretary of state, two gover- 
nors, four members of Congress, a major-general in the 
army, and another second in command in the navy. 
Two served as foreign ministers, two were State legis- 
lators, and one a surveyor-general. As all these ser- 
vices were performed during the Civil War, there 
were Washburns in nearly every department of 
the State, laboring in camp and council for the 
Republic at the sacrifice of great personal in- 
terests. All came forth from peaceful avocations to 
serve their country as their first duty. The Union 
saved, they are found to-day pursuing their industrial 
occupations as of old. The nation having no enemies 
to conquer, they turn their energies to the work of 
feeding it. Is not this turning the sword into the 
plough-share and the spear into the pruning-hook ? 
Let the nation be endangered, or an emergency arise 
where, in the judgment and conscience of such men, 
they can perform a greater use in public than in pri- 
vate life, and they are once more upon the stage of 
action. The Republic has such citizens by thousands, 



Cities and Towns. 6i 

and yet the privileged classes of Europe assiduously 
spread the belief among the masses abroad that the 
Republic lacks pure and distinguished noble men to 
guide her councils. Believe me, fellovz-citizens, no 
nation upon earth has such v/ealth of patriotism, 
men with such power to conceive, or such ability 
to execute, as rests quietly in reserve, but ever 
ready for emergencies, in this democracy. It is 
this reserve force vv^hich has kept the Republic 
steadily upon her course. It votes or fights as 
may be necessary, and never shirks a duty. When 
the ship of State is in smooth waters more important 
matters require its attention, and the governing power 
goes below ; but, mark you, vvdien the wind blows this 
captain walks the deck. The Republic has never been 
allowed to sail far out of the true course, and never 
will be. Too much science on board, and too many 
independent observations taken and compared in the 
full blaze of the sun, not to find the true reckoning and 
follow it closely, steadily, to the desired haven. This 
reserve was seen forcibly during the four years during 
which the Union was imperilled. When a leader was 
needed one was found in an attorney's office in Illinois, 
— a great, heaven-born leader, Lincoln. When foreign 
relations were necessarily dangerous in the extreme, 
and even our mother country stood threatening, Sev/- 
ard proved himself a diplomatist of the first order. 
For Secretary of War a genius was taken from the 



62 T7'iu7nphant Democracy, 

practice of the law in Pittsburgh. No man since the 
days of Carnot has waged war as did Stanton. '' The 
armies will move now," said a friend, when his appoint- 
ment was announced, " if they move to the devil." I 
knew Stanton well, a Cromwell kind of man ; he walked 
straight to his end, either to triumph or to die. His 
life he could give and would give that the nation 
should live ; that was his duty ; victory m.ight come or 
defeat, that was not his affair. When generals to lead 
the armies were sought for, the great leader came from 
a tannery in Galena ; the second from teaching in a 
college. All these were from peaceful occupations, 
and every one of them resigned power poor men. 
The families of several of them were provided for 
by private subscriptions among friends. Politics are 
but means to an end. When the laws of a country 
are perfect, and the equality of the citizen reached, 
there is far more important work to be performed at 
home than in legislative halls. Hence the ablest and 
best men in the Republic are not as a class found 
trifling their time away doing the work of medioc- 
rity. But let great issues rise and see who come to 
the front — a body of men superior to any found else- 
where in the world. 

Already Minneapolis is the greatest wheat market 
in the West, and unlike other large receiving points, 
four-fifths of all wheat received there is manufactured 
into flour before shipment. Last year one and a quarter 



Cities and Towns, 63 

million bushels were often received in a single week. 
The total receipts of 1884 were nearly three times 
as great as those of 1880, aggregating twenty-nine 
million bushels. The milling trade has also increased 
at a prodigious rate. One-fifth of all the flour ex- 
ported from the United States is sent direct from 
Minneapolis on through bills of lading. The capacity 
of the mills is over thirty thousand barrels per day ; 
and one of the Washburn Mills alone has made over 
seven thousand barrels of flour in one day. Five and 
a quarter million barrels were manufactured last year 
— five times the output of 1876, Surely no v/orthy 
second of this can be found elsewhere. Yet flouring 
is not the only industry of this youthful giant. Three 
hundred million feet of lumber v/ere cut by the mills 
last year, besides one hundred and thirty-six million 
lath and shingles ! Minneapolis justifiably boasts that 
she is " a city of mechanics." Her manufactures ex- 
ceeded twelve millions sterling in 1884, while her trade, 
exclusive of flour and lumber, reached almost an equal 
sum. The total receipts and shipments of Minne- 
apolis in the year 1884 comprised two hundred and 
forty-six thousand nine hundred and eighty-five carloads. 
A local statistician has reckoned that '' if all these cars 
were made up into trains of twenty cars each they 
would make twelve thousand three hundred and forty- 
seven trains, requiring that number of engines to move 
them ; if cars and engines were continuously coupled 



64 Triumphant Democracy. 

together they would make a train one thousand seven 
hundred miles in length ; or, if made into four trains, 
each train would reach from Minneapolis to Chicago; 
or the line of freight cars would be sufficient to com- 
pletely fence in England and Scotland, and then form 
a wall across the middle of the country at its widest 
part. 

Some idea of the enormous amount of flour manu- 
factured by the mills of Minneapolis can be obtained if 
we estimate it at the rate of two hundred and fifty 
loaves of bread to the barrel, which would give us 
twenty-five loaves for each of the fifty-six million 
people of the United States. If the flour made by 
Minneapolis m one year were put into barrels and these 
set end to end and roped together, it would make a 
pontoon bridge from New York to Ireland. 

A similar phenomenal growth is going on in another 
region. In 1870, only fifteen years ago, except Superior 
and Duluth, the former a " straggling little hamlet ! " 
and the other "" laid out on speculation in the woods 
on the lake shore," there was not a town, village, or 
hamlet westward on or near the line marked out for 
the Northern Pacific Railroad for more than a thou- 
sand miles. Between the head of the lake and the 
mining camps among the Rocky Mountains in Mon- 
tana, no abodes of civilized men existed, save two or 
three military posts and Indian agencies, and a few iso- 
lated trading stations. Northern Minnesota was a 



Cities and Towns, 65 

forest Into which even the lumberman had not yet 
penetrated, save for a few miles back of Lake Superior. 
At present the whole line of the railway is dotted with 
thriving towns. " The town laid out on speculation in 
the woods," is deserving of a moment's attention. 

Duluth, even in the embryonic state, displayed a 
precocity that brought upon it the ridicule of a famous 
orator. With scathing sarcasm, but unconscious proph- 
ecy, he dubbed it "the zenith city of the unsalted seas." 
There is a scream from the American eagle for you ; 
but^is it not poetic ? The juvenile city is nov/ the ter- 
minus of ten thousand miles of railway. Its receipts 
of wheat for 1884 approached fourteen million bushels. 
Saw mills are- getting almost as plentiful as black- 
berries ; and in a single year they cut two hundred and 
five million feet of lumber besides eightv-five million 
lath and shingles. The clearances show that seven 
hundred steamers and nearly six hundred sail-craft 
arrived at Duluth in 1884. Banking transactions 
amounted to thirty-four million dollars a year. Storage 
capacity for grain is nearly ten million bushels. Lastly, 
the population of this magic city has bounded from 
two thousand five hundred in 1875 to eighteen thou- 
sand in 1S84. Was ever the like known except in the 
triumphant Republic ? 

Indianapolis, with its present population of ninety 

thousand inhabitants, has also a history which the 

'^ oldest inhabitant " can recite from personal experience. 
5 



66 Triumphant De?nocracy, 

Practically its history as a city dates from the opening 
of the Madison Railway in 1847. Before that date it 
was but a small country town, so isolated that its 
trade was compared to that of the two boys who, 
when locked up in a closet, made money by swapping 
jackets. The slowness of its growth before the advent 
of the railway is shown by the following facts extracted 
from Holloway's " Local History." The town was laid 
out in 1 82 1. Ten years later three-fourths of the town 
site remained unsold. The legislature managed to get 
rid of most of the lots by putting a minimum price of 
$10 upon them, and when the sales were closed in 
1842, it v/as found that the whole of Indianapolis had 
brought but $125,000(^25,000). The city thus sold out 
was but a forest, except where a clearing here and there 
had opened the ground to the light. To get the 
streets cleared it was proposed to give the timber to 
any body who would cut it. A man by the name of 
Lismund Basye took the contract for Washington 
Street, expecting to make a "good thing " of such a 
superb lot of timber trees, and then began to calculate. 
There were no mills and his trees were of no use with- 
out them, so he rolled his splendid logs together and 
burned them as well as his fingers. The street thus 
opened, a hundred and twenty feet wide, is now lined 
with fine buildings ; and a single block on this hand- 
some thoroughfare would now fetch more than the sum 
for which the whole city was originally sold. Indianap- 



Cities and Towns, 67 

olis has claims to be considered one of the greatest 
railv/ay centres in the world. Fourteen railways cen- 
tre there, and about a hundred and twenty passenger 
trains pass in and out of the city every day. 

Kansas City is another example of Western phenom- 
enal growths. Thirty years ago (1855) its population 
was three hundred ; in fifteen years (1870) it had in- 
creased more than a hundredfold, to thirty-two thou- 
sand ; by 1880 it had again doubled to sixty-three 
thousand, and at the time of writing it is about one 
hundred and twenty-five thousand. The assessed valua- 
tion of property has increased from $500,000 (;^ 100,000) 
in 1846 to $34,000,000 (;^6,8oo,ooo) in 1884. The ex- 
changes, as shown by the returns of the city clearing- 
house, have advanced from $20,000,000 (;^4,ooo,ooo) in 
1875 to $177,000,000 (nearly ;^ 3 6,000,000) in 1884. The 
business of the post-office increased during the same 
period fivefold. About twenty-four million bushels of 
grain were received in 1884, against one million bushels 
in 1871. One and a quarter million hogs are annually 
turned into pork — about a fourth of monster Chica- 
go's herd, and fifteen hundred cattle are also weekly 
shipped as provisions. The trade in live stock is also 
very great ; nearly two and a half million cattle, hogs, 
sheep, horses and mules pass through its markets — a 
procession, five abreast, that would reach from Inver- 
ness to London. 

Numerous other examples might be cited. Alie- 



68 Triumphant De^nocracy, 

gheny City, an off-shoot of Pittsburgh, has grown from 
a village of twenty-eight hundred inhabitants in 1830 
to a city of seventy-nine thousand in 1880; while the 
population of Pittsburgh itself increased during the 
same period from twelve thousand to one hundred and 
fifty-six thousand. Buffalo during the same fifty years 
advanced from eighty thousand to one hundred and 
fifty-five thousand inhabitants ; Philadelphia increased 
from eighty thousand to nearly eight hundred and fifty 
thousand ; Cincinnati from twenty-four thousand to 
two hundred and fifty-five thousand ; Detroit from two 
thousand to one hundred and sixteen thousand ; Roch- 
ester from fifteen persons in 18 12 to eighty-nine thou- 
sand in 1880; Toledo from twelve hundred and twenty- 
two in 1840 to fifty thousand in 1880; Scranton from 
three hundred and sixty-three in 1840 to forty-six thou- 
sand in 1880. 

Of the growth of these towns we have an excellent 
picture in the following paragraphs, the first from the 
pen "of Capt. Basil Hall, the " best-hated Englishman* 
in America some fifty years ago, and the second by 
the Norwegian, Arfedson, descriptive of Columbus, 
Georgia : 

" The first thing to which our attention was called was a long 
line cut through the coppicewood of oaks. This our guide begged 
us to observe was to be the principal street ; and the brushwood 
having been cut away so as to leave a lane four feet wide, with 
small stakes driven in it at intervals, we could walk along it easily 



Cities and Towns, 69 

enough. On reaching the middle point, our friend, looking around 
him, exclaimed in rapture at the prospect of the future greatness of 
Columbus : " Here you are in the centre of the city ! " After 
threading our way for some time amongst the trees, we came in 
sight here and there, of huts partly of planks, partly of bark, and at 
last reached the principal cluster of houses, very few of which, were 
above two or three weeks old. As none of the city-lots were yet 
sold, of course no one was sure that the spot on which he had 
pitched his house would eventually become his own. Many of the 
houses were in consequence of this understanding built on trucks, a 
sort of low strong wheels, such as cannon are supported by, for the 
avowed purpose of being hauled away when the land should be sold. 
At some parts of this strange scene the forest was growing as 
densely as ever ; and even in the most cleared streets some trees 
were left standing. As yet there had been no time to remove the 
stumps of the felled trees, and many that had been felled were left 
in their places ; so that it was occasionally no easy matter to get 
along. Anvils were heard ringing away merrily at every corner, 
while saws, axes, and hammers, were seen flashing amongst the 
woods all around." 

Columbus in 1832, only four years later: 

"It may already be called a flourishing town. The population 
exceeded two thousand, and among them were several that might be 
denominated wealthy. The number of inhabitants is augmenting 
monthly, and the increase of commerce, I was assured, was in the 
same proportions. Carpenters, masons, and workmen of every 
kind, were never without employment, and could not erect houses 
fast enough. Streets, which in 1828 were only marked out, were 
now so filled with loaded wagons that it was next to impossible to 
pass. The principal street which traverses the city, following the 
course of the river, is like the rest, not paved, but has so many 



7o TriuTnphant Democracy, 

shops filled with a variety of goods, such a number of neat houses, 
and finally, in the mornings, such a concourse of people, Christians 
and Indians, that it can hardly be believed that it is the same street 
which was only marked out in 1828. Most of the houses are of 
wood, and some of brick ; a few in the English style, others again 
in the Grecian taste." 

If we compare the preceding accounts of the rise 
and progress of recently established cities with the slow 
movements of old Boston, the contrast is great indeed. 
Boston was first settled in 1630. Fifty years later the 
first fire-engine was procured, and the first fire-company 
organized — a sign of progress attained by a modern 
town in as many weeks. In 1704 appeared the Boston 
News Letter, the first newspaper ever published in the 
British colonies of North America. Now the printing 
press is set up almost in the first plank house erected ; 
and a towm of a fev/ miners must have its own news- 
paper. In 1 710, eighty years after the settlement of 
the town, a post-office was established, and mails were 
forwarded once a week to Plymouth and to Maine, and 
once a fortnight to New York. In 1786 the citizens 
undertook their first great enterprise, and constructed 
a bridge over the Charles River ; so that Boston re- 
quired a hundred and fifty years to attain a position 
which is now often reached by modern towns of the 
prairies in as many months. 

Examples without number of phenomenal growth 
of cities and towns might be cited, for the line stretches 



Cities a7id Towns, 71 

on, one seemingly miraculous till the other comes. 
From East to West, from North to South, up and 
down and across the map of the Republic the student 
may pass in imaginative flight, sure of meeting every- 
where these cities and towns which, springing up like 
mushrooms, have nevertheless taken root like the oak. 
A beautiful tribute to the mother land is found in 
the names of towns and cities in the new^ As even on 
the crowded, tiny May Flower the stern Puritan found 
room to bring and nurse with tender care the daisy of 
his native land, so the citizen driven from the dear old 
home, ever sighs, " England, with all thy faults I love 
thee still." Surely, why not ? Her faults are as one, 
her virtues as a thousand. And having a new home to 
christen, with swelling heart and tearful eye, and a love 
for the native land which knows no end and never can 
know end while breath clings to the body, he con- 
jures up the object of his fondest love and calls his new 
home Boston, York, Brighton, Hartford, Stratford, Glas- 
gow, Edinburgh, Durham, Perth, Aberdeen, Dundee, 
Cambridge, Oxford, Canterbury, Rochester, London, 
Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham, Chester, Coven- 
try, Plymouth, or other dear name of the place where 
in life's young days he had danced o'er the sunny 
braes, heard the lark sing in the heavens, and the 
mavis pour forth its glad song from the hedge row. 
There is scarcely a place in the old land which has 
not its namesake in the new. Take Pittsburgh, 



72 Triumphant Democracy, 

which is itself named after the great Pitt, and within 
a few miles' radius the English visitor can walk 
the streets of Soho, Birmingham, and Manchester. 
All these were suburban places a few years ago, and 
now they are as crowded as their prototypes. Brighton, 
Rochester, Newport, Middlesex, Newcastle are only a 
few miles away. This love of the old household words 
is carried even farther. The Englishman travels 
through the Republic living in a succession of hotels, 
Victorias, Clarendons, Windsors, Westminsters, Albe- 
marles. He might think himself at home again except 
that the superior advantages of the nev/ hostelries 
serve to remind him at every turn that things are not 
as he has been accustomed to. So that our household 
gods are not only the same in the new as in the old 
land, but we call them by the same names and love 
them. The exile's heart is always sad when he thinks 
of the one spot of mother earth which alone can be 
in the deepest sense his home. Who then shall keep 
apart the land of his home and the land of his 
domicile ? And what American worthy of the name 
but shall reverence the home of his fathers, and wish it 
God-speed ? When the people reign in the old home 
as they do in the new, the two nations will be one peo- 
ple, and the bonds which unite them the world com- 
bined shall not break asunder. The repubHcan upon 
this side of the Atlantic extends his hand to his fellow 
upon the other. They clasp hands. Democracy cries 



Cities and Towns, 73 

to democracy, " We stand for the rights of man, the 
day of kings and peers is past. Down, privilege, down. 
Ring in the reign of the people, the equality of the 
citizen." No peal so grand as that, save one, that 
which proclaims the substitution of peaceful arbitra- 
tion for war the world over. And that too is involved 
in republicanism. All parties in the Republic already 
stand pledged to the doctrine. Patience, my fellow- 
citizens, patience. Democracy goes marching on. The 
reign of the masses is the road to universal peace. 
Thrones and royal families, and the influences neces- 
sarily surrounding them, — the vile brood they breed 
• — make tv/enty wars while Triumphant Democracy 
makes one. 



CHAPTER IV. 

CONDITIONS OF LIFE. 

"The ideal State is one in which every citizen is content with the 
laws under which he lives. If any body of men in a State agitate for a 
change of laws, dissatisfaction is proven to exist, and by this much is the 
State disordered and unenviable. To produce universal satisfaction is 
possible only by meting out to every citizen the same measures. The 
slightest inequality produces disturbance, for only under equality are the 
parts free from strain, and hence in repose. The State in equilibrium 
has then reached perfection in its political system." — Eigenrac. 

Amid so much that is marvellous in American his- 
tory, nothing stands out with greater prominence than 
the rapid amelioration of the conditions of life. A 
century ago the continent of America was for the most 
part a wilderness. A long strip of the Atlantic coast 
was sparsely populated, and a few towns were unevenly 
sprinkled over the narrow territory. But behind this 
the country was in the same wild condition as when 
the Pilgrim Fathers landed, a hundred and fifty years 
before. There were few roads through the backwoods, 
and the inhabitants of Massachusetts were as widely 
divided from those of Virginia as from those of the old 
home, all intercommunication of the colonies being by 
coasting vessels. After Independence (1776), however, 
the young nation, full of the enthusiasm and hot blood 



Conditiojis of Life. 75 

of youth, vigorously applied itself to. the development 
of the country. Canals and turnpike roads were built, 
and by 1830 there were open for use one hundred and 
fifteen thousand miles of highway, and upwards of two 
thousand miles of canals, the latter costing upwards of 
§65,000,000 (;^ 1 3,000,000). Canals and turnpikes were 
then the mighty forces of civilization, the wonderful 
means of locomotion. 

Eight miles per hour by the mail-coach and six 
miles per hour by the express packet upon the " raging 
canal ! " What was the world coming to ! 

Notwithstanding this, the country was very back- 
ward, and there was little, considered in the light of 
modern comforts, to make life worth living. In the 
newspapers of the time, and in books written by trav- 
ellers, we get faint glimpses of the inconveniences under 
which the past generation labored ; but the full signifi- 
cance of many a little statement written fifty years 
ago, is not to be realized in these days of luxurious 
refinement and elegant ease. Here, for example, is an 
extract from Niks' s Register y March 20, 1830 : 

"A letter written in Baltimore has been replied to from Nor- 
folk in forty-one hours, a distance of about four hundred miles — 
by steam ! " 

The note of exclamation appended to the statement 
seems oddly incongruous in these days of telegraphs, 
telephones, and penny postage. The difificulty of com- 



76 Triu7nphant Democracy, 

munlcation In those early days is further exemplified 
by the statement in the American Quarterly Observer 
for July, 1834, that : 

"A package of books can be more readily sent from Boston 
to London than to Cincinnati. A book printed in Boston has been 
republished in Edinburgh before it has reached Cincinnati." 

And here are a few passages from Miss Martineau's 
"Society in America," date 1834-5 : 

"The great cities are even yet ill supplied from the country. 
Provisions are very dear : . . . butcher's meat throughout the 
country is far inferior to what it will be when an increased amount 
of labor, and means of transport, shall encourage improvements in 
the pasturage and care of stock. While fowls, butter, and eggs, 
are still sent from Vermont into Boston, there is no such thing to 
be had there as a joint of tender meat. In one house in Boston, 
where a very numerous family lives in handsome style, and where 
I several times met large dinner parties, I never saw an ounce of 
meat, except ham. The table was covered with birds, in great va- 
riety, and well cooked; but all winged creatures. The only tender, 
juicy meat I saw in the country, was a sirloin of beef at Charleston, 
and the whole provision of a gentleman's table in Kentucky. At 
one place, there v/as nothing but veal on the table for a month ; in 
a town where I staid ten days, nothing was to be had but beef; and 
throughout the South the traveller meets with little else than pork, 
under all manner of disguises, and fowls." 

Miss Martineau, writing from Philadelphia, further 
remarks that, 

" All the ladies ot a country town, not very far off, were wear- 
ing gloves too bad to be mended, or none at all, because none 
had come up by the canal for many weeks. 



Co7iditio72s of Life, yy 

*' At Washington, I wanted some ribbon for my straw bonnet ; 
and in the whole place, in the season, I could find only six pieces 
of ribbon to choose from. (She would find sixty shops to-day each 
filled with ribbon.) 

"Throughout the entire country (out of the cities), I was 
struck with the discomforts of broken windows which appeared on 
every side. Large farm-houses, flourishing in every other respect, 
had dismal-looking windows. Persons who happen to live near a 
canal, or other quiet watery road, have baskets of glass of various 
sizes sent to them from the towns, and glaze their own windows. 
But there is no bringing glass over a corduroy, or mud, or rough 
limestone road ; and those who have no other highways must get 
along with such windows as it may please the weather and the 
children to leave them." 

Even so late as 1845 this isolation was the lot of all 
who lived at a distance from the coast. Sir Charles 
Lyell, visiting Milledgeville, Georgia, in that year, re- 
lates that the landlady of the hotel regarded Lady 
Lyell as quite a curiosity because she did not know 
how to make soap ; and the good dame told her how 
the maids '' make almost everything in the house, even 
to the caps I wear." And it appears from contempo- 
rary records that soap and candles were home-made for 
many years after, and homespun cloth was largely 
worn by the people. In the rural districts of New 
England at present many houses still have in their 
garrets the old family spinning-wheel and loom. 

William Cobbett, writing in 1823, of Long Island, 
says : 



78 Trmmphant Democracy. 

" There, and indeed all over the American States, north of 
Maryland, and especially in the New England States, almost the 
whole of both linen and woollen used in the country, and a large 
part of that used in towns is made in the farm houses. There are 
thousands and thousands of families who never use either, except 
of their own making. All but the weaving is done by the family. 
There is a loom in the house, and the weaver goes from house to 
house. I once saw about three thousand farmers, or rather country 
people, at a horse-race in Long Island, and my opinion was that 
there were not five hundred who were not dressed in homespun 
coats. As to linen, no farmer's family thinks of buying linen." 

The discomforts of life to those in settled districts 
were few and slight compared with those experienced 
by settlers who went West. Of these a writer in De 
Bows Review^ in 1825, says: 

" Their journey was made after long preparation, and was toil- 
some, slow, and expensive. They were compelled to bring their 
heavy tools and bulky implements of husbandry, their kitchen 
utensils and fragile furniture, by a difficult navigation and over 
heavy roads ; several years were required to make a small clear- 
ing, rude improvements, and enough coarse food for domestic 
use." 

And after all this effort the conditions of life often 
accorded with those indicated in the following laconic 
dialogue : 

" Whose land was that you bought ? '* 

'' Moggs'." 

''What's the soil?" 

*' Bogs." 



Conditions of Life* 79 

"What's the climate?" 

" Fogs." 

" What do you get to eat ? " 

" Hogs." 

" What do you build your house of ?" 

" Logs." 

" Have you any neighbors ? " 

" Frogs." 

Though this is a playful exaggeration, there were 
many settlers whose lot was scarcely more enviable 
than that of the man who lived amid the bogs he 
bought of Moggs. Far removed from all means of 
communication, the western pioneer was practically cut 
off from the world. No ubiquitous postal system en- 
abled him to keep up communication with his friends 
*' down East," or in the " old country." Newspapers 
rarely penetrated into the wild regions where he lived ; 
and if he wished to visit his nearest neighbor he had to 
ride many miles across a rough and often hostile coun- 
try. The traveller on the western rivers occasionally 
saw a solitary individual, perhaps a woman, paddling 
up stream in a canoe to visit a neighbor twenty or 
thirty miles off. Letters to the settlers were sent to 
the nearest town, perhaps a hundred miles away, where 
they lay for months until the person they were destined 
for, or some neighbor, could find time to go for them. 

The rates of postage in those days were very high. 
A letter of one sheet was carried any distance not ex- 



8o Triumphant Democracy, 

ceeding thirty miles for six cents ; and this sum was 
doubled or trebled if the letter consisted of two or 
three sheets. For any distance exceeding four hundred 
miles the charge was twenty-five cents (one shilling) 
per sheet — a sum which then had double the purchas- 
ing power it has to-day. 

Primitive simplicity prevailed in municipal arrange- 
ments where these existed. A notice copied from the 
walls of the bar-room of the village inn at Sandisfield, 
Massachusetts, in 1833, well illustrates this: 

" All persons who have neglected to pay their taxes or bills 
committed to Josiah H. Sage, collector, are hereby notified that, in 
consequence of the sickness of the said collector, the bills are at 
my house, where those who are w^illing can have opportunity to 
pay their taxes if they improve it soon j and those who neglect 
may expect to pay a constable with fee for collecting." 

Scavenging was done by pigs which were allowed to 
run at large through the streets. Sir Charles Lyell 
describes them as going about Cincinnati in large num- 
bers, no person in particular claiming ownership of 
them. Even in New York these scavengers were long 
tolerated on the side-walks because of their supposed 
usefulness. It was no uncommon thing thirty-five years 
ago for pedestrians to be thrust into the road by the 
dirty snout of some city hog ; a newly imported Irish- 
man declared, on being so pushed into the gutter, that 
it was '* a sthrange counthry where the pigs were all 
loose and the stones all tied." 



Conditio7is of Life. 8i 

The streets of towns were usually unlightedat night. 
New York, however, used in 1830 thirty-five thousand 
gallons of oil for two hundred and ninety-nine street 
lamps, '' besides gas." In a description of Cincinnati in 
1 83 1 a writer in the New Ejigland Magazine says : 

"Every citizen, who ventures abroad when the moon is absent, 
carries his own lantern or runs the risk of breaking his neck. It 
is a curious sight to see the lights hurrying in all directions, pass- 
ing, repassing, and flitting to and fro, as if dancing at a masque- 
rade of genii." 

New York, in 1837, was destitute of a supply of 
good and wholesome water. There were numerous 
wells with pumps in all parts of the city ; but the pump 
water was generally considered deleterious. Rain water 
was largel,y used by the citizens, most of the houses being 
provided with good cisterns. A contemporary writer 
says : 

" Many parts of the city are now supplied with water for the 
table brought from the upper wards in casks. On the East and 
North Rivers, in some instances, it is pure, and in others its good- 
ness is but little better than the present well water. The tables of 
the wealthy are supplied from this source, while the poorer classes 
have to resort to such wells and pumps as are. in their neighbor- 
hood. It has been ascertained that there are now brought to the 
city by water-carts, six hundred hogsheads, for which there is paid 
one dollar and twenty-five cents for each hogshead (or about one 
cent per gallon) amounting to $750 per day, or $273,750 per annum, 
for water from that source." 
6 



82 Triumphant Democracy, 

It is not surprising that under such conditions New 
York, now one of the best-watered cities in the world, 
suffered several severe epidemics of cholera, which in 
1832 "raged to a fearful extent, nearly depopulat- 
ing it." The water supply of New York is equal to 
that of monster London ; so that the New Yorker uses 
more than double the quantity of water used by the 
Londoner. The stupendous character of the works 
undertaken in America is shown by this water supply 
question of New York. A sub-way, averaging two hun- 
dred and fifty feet below the surface, large enough for 
a double-track railway, and more than thirty miles long, 
is now being constructed to increase the supply of 
the Empire City. Five miles are already done, and 
it is expected that the entire work will be finished in 
three years from the date of letting the contract. In a 
couple of years, therefore, the water supply of New 
York will be four hundred million gallons per diem, or 
four times that now consumed by London. The 
world has long heard of a projected channel tunnel 
between Dover and Calais. Here is a longer tunnel of 
equal size being quietly constructed, and scarcely any- 
thing said about it. 

Other towns were as badly off in regard to water 
supply ; a circumstance which acquires prominence 
when viewed in connection with the great fires which 
periodically destroyed large portions of the towns of the 
Union. Contributing to these frequent disasters was 



Conditions of Life, 83 

the Imperfect apparatus at that date for extinguishing 
fires. So inoperative were the fire-engines, that in the 
report of a fire at New Orleans, in Nilcss Register for 
May 8, 1830, it is related that though within one hun- 
dred yards of the Mississippi, little water was to be had. 
It was not until 1853 that the steam fire-engine 
was made a practical machine, and it was rriuch later 
before it came into general use. Now, the equipment 
of the fire brigade of America is the most perfect in the 
world. Electric communication between all quarters of 
towns, and between many houses, and numerous fire- 
stations exist everywhere ; and a minute after a fire 
is reported by pressing an electric button, half a dozen 
steam fire-engines are speeding from different quarters 
towards the fire. In many towns the same pressure of 
an electric button, which is made to sound an alarm on 
gongs in a dozen different fire-stations, also starts ma- 
chinery which releases the horses from their halters, 
allows the harness to fall on their backs, and raises the 
stable-gates. 

In the early days, when men had an entire continent 
to bring into subjection, and when the work of doing 
this was doubly difficult through the imperfection of 
machinery, the business of life was work — work in its 
most Carlylean sense of intense, unrelaxed labor. Men 
had no time to waste in fashionable frivolity ; and even 
the graver kinds of amusement were, except in the 
older cities of the East, little indulged in. Mrs. Trol- 



84 Triumphant Democracy. 

lope, a name long discordant to American ears, com- 
mented on this circumstance : 

"I never saw any people who appeared to live so much without 
amusement as the Cincinnatians. Billiards are forbidden by law, 
so are cards. To sell a pack of cards in Ohio subjects the seller to 
a penalty of $50. They have no public balls, excepting-, I think, 
six during the Christmas holidays. They have no concerts. They 
have no dinner parties," 

To this emphatic " never,'' is probably required the 
Sullivan-Gilbert qualification ''hardly ever." To say 
that the people of Cincinnati, fifty years ago, never 
went to balls, never attended concerts, never dined out, 
is obviously straining the literal truth. Still it is un- 
questionable that social recreations were few and far 
between in those days. 

Although facts prove that the general standard of 
comfort was necessarily very much lower in the early 
part of the period we are considering than now, there 
yet prevailed a degree of general well-being unknown 
at the same time in Europe. Arfedson, a Swedish 
traveller, who visited the country in 1832-34, has thus 
placed on record his impressions : 

"A European, travelling in this direction (New York State), 
cannot help admiring the general appearance of comfort and pros- 
perity so singularly striking. To an inhabitant of the Scandinavian 
peninsula, accustomed to different scenes, it is peculiarly gratifying 
to witness, instead of gorgeous palaces by the side of poor huts, a 
row of neat country houses, inhabited by independent farmers.'* 



Conditions of Life. 85 

A Swedish servant, lately arrived in America, at 
the date in question, on looking round and perceiving 
the happy state so generally diffused, exclaimed, v/ith 
surprise and characteristic simplicity, " Sir, have the 
goodness to inform me where the peasantry live in this 
country ? " 

In works on America written about this period, we 
everywhere find expressions of surprise at the absence 
of beggars. Sir Charles Lyell, inquiring in his " First 
Visit " in 1840, ^' to what combination of causes the suc- 
cess of national education is to be attributed," and 
replying to his own query, makes a statement which is 
here relevant. He says: 

"First there is no class in want or extreme poverty here, partly 
because the facility of migrating to the West, for those who are 
without employment, is so great, and also, in part, from the check 
to improvident marriages, created by the high standard of living 
to which the lowest people aspire, a standard which education is 
raising higher and higher from day to day." 

As a further result of this universal prosperity, there 
was less crime than in the older countries, where life 
was difficult. 

"The number of persons apprehended by the police of the city 
of London, in 1832, was seventy-two thousand eight hundred and 
twenty-four. The population of London being twenty times that 
of Boston, the same proportion would -give for Boston, thirty- 
six hundred and forty-one, instead of the actual number, nineteen 
hundred and four. 



86 Triumphant Democracy, 

But probably the greatest contrast of all was that 
between the low status of the factory operatives in 
England and the high status of the same class in Amer- 
ica. In England, forty years ago, the factory hand was 
a mere machine — a drudge, ill-fed, ill-housed, addicted 
to low pleasures, with no hope on earth, and scant 
knowledge of heaven. In America the female opera- 
tives were usually farmers' daughters, who entered the 
factory to make a little money with which to set up 
housekeeping v/hen they married. Their intellectual 
status is shown by the fact that at Lowell, Massachu- 
setts, a magazine was published consisting entirely of 
articles and poems written by girls employed in the 
factories. By a judicious superintendence their morals 
were cared for, none being permitted to live in un- 
authorized lodging houses ; and the result was that the 
girls of the Lowell factories were celebrated as much 
for their virtue as for their intellectual superiority. Un- 
fortunately all this is changed. Immigrant operatives 
from Europe came in, and supplanted those of New 
England ; and at the present time the condition of the 
American factory hand, though decidedly better than 
that of the European operative, is said to be not nearly 
so high as it was forty years ago. 

The glimpses we are thus able to obtain of this 
period of fifty-five years ago (1830), show us a people 
scattered for the most part along the Atlantic sea- 
board. A few aggregations of people at Boston, New 



Co7iditio}is of Life, '^'] 

York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore had made good their 
claim to rank as cities. The roads of America, still, with 
some exceptions, the worst perhaps in the civilized 
world, were then only dirt lanes, almost impassable 
during the rainy season, but excellent in summer and 
during the hard frosts of winter. Stage-coaches ran 
between the cities at intervals which to us seem 
absurdly rare ; and sailing packets, propelled by steam, 
and on the canals express packets, drawn by horses, 
divided the passenger trafific with the stage-coaches. 
Enterprising pioneers had pushed westward beyond the 
Alleghanies into the Ohio valley, and even as far as 
the plains of Illinois. The emigrant travelled in his 
own wagons to his new home in the then " far " West. 
During the long and hazardous journey, his family 
lived the life of roaming gypsies. 

The people's dress was of the cheapest and simplest 
character. A rough casinet cloth was used for the best 
dress of the men, and few women out of the principal 
cities aspired to a silk gown. In 1830 cotton calico 
was worn by most women, even of the well-to-do class. 
The servant problem, to-day such a difficult one to 
the American housewife, was mxuch easier of solution 
then ; for, as there were fewer foreign women avail- 
able for domestic service, native Americans had to 
be employed. These were not called servants, but 
" help ; " and it v/as the custom for them to sit at 
the family table, and in other ways to be treated as 



88 Triumphant Democracy, 

equals and members of the family. Such an arrange- 
ment was hardly an inconvenience where so much 
simplicity of life prevailed. A repugnance then ex- 
isted to all distinctions in dress. No coachman was 
ever seen in livery, nor did servants dress in any 
prescribed fashion. Concerning this trait Miss Mar- 
tineau writes: 

" One laughable peculiarity at the British Legation (at Wash- 
ington) was the confusion of tongues among the servants, who 
ask you to take fish, flesh, and fowl in Spanish, Italian, German, 
Dutch, Irish, or French. The foreign ambassadors are terribly 
plagued about servants. No American will wear liver)^, and 
there is no reason why any American should. But the British 
ambassador must have livery servants. He makes what com- 
promise he can, allowing his people to appear without livery out 
of doors, except on state occasions ; but he is obliged to pick 
up his domestics from among foreigners who are in want of a 
subsistence for a short time, and are sure to go away as soon 
as they can find employment in which the wearing a livery is 
not a requisite." 

Such was the repugnance to livery that policemen 
dressed like ordinary citizens. Even New York city did 
not give its police a distinctive dress until 1845. Other 
cities followed later, until now it would be difficult to 
distinguish the police force in any American city from 
the metropolitan police of London. Coachmen's liv- 
eries are less gaudy in America than in Europe. We 
have not yet adopted powdered-haired coachmen and 



Conditions of Life, 89 

flunkeys with stuffed calves, nor brilliantly colored 
coaches. 

I remember well that when the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road Company decided that conductors and passenger- 
train men upon its lines should be distinguished from 
passengers by a uniform official dress, serious doubts 
were entertained whether the requirement would not 
lead to universal refusal to wear livery. In this case, 
as with the police force, the obvious advantage of the 
men in authority being known at once by their uni- 
form was finally recognized by the employees. 

It is a sentiment well worth humoring, however, — 
this dislike to distinctive badges, except when clearly 
useful. Unless so, let republican citizens be indepen- 
dent and differ even in dress. 

There was scarcely a private carriage in Western 
cities in those days. People rode on horseback or in 
rude wagons, or, at best, in one-horse chaises. An old 
lady, living not long since, and one whom I knew well 
and honored, kept the first carriage in Pittsburgh ; and 
t^e lady who first had a coachman in livery (he was 
a colored man fond of display,) died only recently. 
If the dress, conveniences, and homes of the people 
were of the simplest character, so was the food. It 
was, however, very cheap. Eggs were three half-pence 
a dozen, and a leg of lamb cost only a shilling. For- 
eign wine was so rare and costly as to be almost un- 
known. The importations of wine in 1831 amounted 



90 Triu7nphant Democracy. 

to only a million and a half dollars. Barter was a 
common mode of payment. Workmen, even in cities, 
received orders upon a store for their labor. Wages 
were generally low. Laborers received sixty-two cents 
(three shillings) per day, and two dollars (eight shil- 
lings) per day was long considered remarkably high 
wages, and was given only to veiy skilful workmen. 
Salaries v/ere even lower in proportion. The late 
President of the great Pennsylvania Railway received 
only $1,500 (^300) per annum as late as 1855, when 
he was superintendent of the western division of the 
line. I was overwhelmed when, as his successor, I 
received ;^50 more per annum. Notwithstanding low 
wages, the regularity of work and the simplicity of 
life enabled the people to save considerable sums 
every year. 

Such as there was of fashion was in the direction of 
the plainest living, and in opposition to ostentation in 
residence, furniture, dress, food, or equipage. It was 
republican to be plain, simple, unaffected, and of the 
people. Kid gloves, dress coats, and silk dresses 
were hardly known west of the Alleghanies. There 
were no millionaires in those days. Men with fifty or 
a hundred thousand dollars (;i^ 10,000 to ;^20,ooo) were 
spoken of throughout the country as the millionaire is 
now. Indeed, there are probably more millionaires in 
New York city to-day than there v/ere men in the 
whole country in 1830 who were worth a hundred 



Conditions of Life. • 91 

thousand dollars. The first pianoforte manufactory 
was founded in 1822, but was so insignificant that in 
1853 it turned out only fifteen pianos a week. Few 
carriages were made till 1840. Works of art were rarely 
seen. The first picture gallery of any consequence was 
that of the Pennsylvania Academy, Philadelphia, opened 
in 181 1. Other cities remained till a recent date with- 
out important art collections. Libraries existed in 
colleges and in the public buildings of the State 
capitol, but few collections of books were accessible 
to the people. Previous to 1830 only three or four 
cities had such libraries, and these were unimportant. 

In those days every village and country district had 
its universal genius who could turn his hand to any- 
thing, from drawing a tooth to mending a clock. The 
doctor of divinity had usually the functions of doctor 
of medicine as well. The doctor of the body had 
no brother doctor of the soul ; he was both himself. 
The lawyer was attorney, counsellor, real estate agent, 
banker, and barrister in one. With increasing popula- 
tion, handicrafts and professions have become special- 
ized ; and communities, however small, are now gener- 
ally well supplied with men trained to their special 
vocations, to which they confine themselves. 

A community of toilers with an undeveloped con- 
tinent before them, and destitute of the refinements 
and elegancies of life, — such was the picture pre- 
sented by the Republic fifty years ago. Contrasted 



92 • Trhimphant Democracy. 

with that of to-day we might almost conclude that we 
were upon another planet and subject to different 
primary conditions. If the roads throughout the 
country are yet poor compared with those of Europe, 
the need of good roads has been rendered less impera- 
tive by the omnipresent railroad. It is the superiority 
of the iron highway in America which has diverted 
attention from the country roads. Macaulay's test of 
the civilization of a people by the condition of their 
roads must be interpreted, in this age of steam, to 
include railroads. Communication between places 
is now cheaper and more comfortable than in any 
other country. Upon the principal railway lines the 
cars — luxurious drawing-rooms by day, and sleeping 
chambers by night — are ventilated by air, warmed and 
filtered in winter, and cooled in summer. Passenger 
steamers upon the lakes and rivers are of gigantic 
size, and models of elegance. The variety and quality 
of the food of the people of America excels that 
found elsewhere, and is a constant surprise to Euro- 
peans visiting the States. The dress of the people is 
now of the richest character — far beyond that of any 
other people, compared class for class. The comforts 
of the average American home compare favorably 
with those of other lands, while the residences of the 
wealthy classes are not equalled anywhere. The first- 
class American residence of to-day in all its appoint- 
ments excites the envy of the foreigner. One touch of 



Conditions of Life, 93 

the electric button calls a messenger ; two touches 
bring a telegraph boy ; three summon a policeman ; 
four give the alarm of fire. Telephones are used to an 
extent hardly dreamed of in Europe, the stables, gar- 
dener's houses, and other outbuildings being connected 
with the mansion ; and the houses of friends are joined 
by the talking wire almost as often as houses of busi- 
ness. Speaking-tubes connect the drawing-room with 
the kitchen ; and the dinner is brought up ''piping hot " 
by an elevator. Hot air and steam pipes are carried all 
over the house ; and by the turning of a tap the tem- 
perature of any room is regulated to suit the conveni- 
ence of the occupant. The electric light is coming into 
use throughout the country as an additional home com- 
fort. Indeed there is no palace or great mansion in Eu- 
rope with half the conveniences and scientific appli- 
ances which characterize the best American mansions. 
New York Central Park is no umvorthy rival of Hyde 
Park and the Bois de Boulogne in its display of fine 
equipages ; and in winter the hundreds of graceful 
sleighs dashing along the drives form a picture pret- 
tier than anything London can boast. The opera 
houses, theatres, and public halls of the country excel 
in magnificence those of other lands, if we except the 
later constructions in Paris and Vienna, with which the 
New York and Philadelphia opera houses rank. The 
commercial exchanges, and the imposing structures of 
the life insurance companies, newspaper buildings, 



94 Trh0npha7it Democracy. 

♦ 

hotels, and many edifices built by wealthy firms, not 
only in New York but in the cities of the West, never 
fail to excite the European's surprise. The postal 
system is equal in every respect to that of Europe. 
Mails are taken up by express trains, sorted on board, 
and dropped at all important points without stopping. 
Letters are delivered several times a day in every con- 
siderable town. The uniform rates of postage for all 
distances, often exceeding three thousand miles, is only 
two cents (one penny) per ounce. 

In short, the conditions of life in American cities 
may be said to have approximated those of Britain 
during the fifty years of which we are speaking. Year 
by year, as the population advances, the general stand- 
ard of comfort in the smaller Western cities rises to 
that of the East. Herbert Spencer was astonished 
beyond measure at v/hat he saw in American cities. 
" Such books as I had looked into," said he, " had 
given me no adequate idea of the immense develop- 
ments of material civilization which I have everywhere 
found. The extent, wealth, and magnificence of your 
cities, and especially the splendor of New York, have 
altogether astonished me. Though I have not visited 
the wonder of the West, Chicago, yet some of your 
minor modern places, such as Cleveland, have sufficient- 
ly amazed me, by the marvellous results of one genera- 
tion's activity. Occasionally, when I have been in 
places of some te-n thousand inhabitants, where the 



Conditio7is of Life. 95 

telephone is in general use, I have felt somewhat 
ashamed of our own unenterprising towns; many of 
which, of fifty thousand inhabitants and more, make no 
use of it." 

There is little difference between the municipal in- 
stitutions of the new and the old lands, but no contrast 
can be greater than that between their country dis- 
tricts. The unfortunate people of monarchies have 
reason to envy the American in many respects, but in 
none more keenly than for the perfection of his local 
township and county organizations. If my American 
readers were generally infomied of the chaos prevailing 
throughout the country districts of England, they 
would be at a loss to understand hovv' a people who 
speak the English tongue could have tolerated it so 
long. The Church has a certain share in local matters, 
especially as regards education; and the clerg^-men, 
vicars, rectors, and curates are found upon the select 
boards which manage all local affairs. Then the 
" lords of the manors," the owners of lands, have also 
a share. The squire and the parson are really the 
powers which attend to everything, and manage all to 
their own liking. The palace of my lord duke is as- 
sessed to pay taxes less in amount than the moderate- 
sized villa of the new m.an, who is not in the ruling 
coterie. Every little country district has its ''ring." 
For in place of one "ring" in the Republic there are 
twenty in the Monarchy. The ofiices are naturally dis- 



96 Triumpha7it Democracy, 

tributed to the favorites of the landlords and the par. 
sons. The people of the district have no voice what- 
ever in the matter, since they are excluded from voting 
for county officials ; only those who are possessed of a 
certain amount of property, or who reside in large 
houses and pay large rents, and who are consequently 
of the ruling classes, are permitted to vote. The ma- 
jority of the people, therefore, have no interest in the 
community as a community. There is no soil for the 
growth of local patriotism. 

In the British towns, however, a pleasing contrast to 
this sad picture is presented. In these manhood suf- 
frage prevails and, in many if not all cases, women pos- 
sessed of property are also entitled to vote. The result 
is a degree of attention to municipal affairs upon the 
part of the best citizens of the towns which is rarely 
found even in America beyond the borders of the old 
settled States, if at all. The proceedings of the town 
council, including the speeches of every member, are 
regularly published at length in the local newspapers. 
Sometimes as much as four columns are occupied by 
the report of this local parliament, and no reading is so 
much enjoyed, or excites a deeper interest in the com- 
munity. It is true, one outside of the boundaries smiles 
to read of really able men, the local manufacturers and 
merchants of the place, disputing upon the correctness 
of a charge of five pounds six and eight pence for repair- 
ing the town-house clock, or an increase of ten pounds 



Conditions of Life. 97 

in the salary of the town clerk ; but the Imperial Parlia- 
ment itself is not seldom engaged upon trifling matters, 
and it is this attention to details which insures a proper 
disposition of the public funds, and an excellent govern- 
ment of the municipality. 

The magistrates and town councillors are held in the 
highest honor, and one hears in Britain of Provost 
Matthieson or Provost Donald, premiership and local 
improvements being characterized as during this or that 
*' administration." The resident of the town hears the 
names of prominent public men, but these are mere ab- 
stractions to him, and furnish no material basis for 
admiration ; but when the provost passes he sees in 
him concentrated glory, the pride of power, the '' real 
presence " as it were. 

From the town councils the nation is drawing some 
of its foremost leaders. Mr. Chamberlain and Alder- 
man Kenrick began their education in that of Birming- 
ham ; Mr. Storey his in that of Sunderland, and the late 
George Harrison his in Edinburgh. My experience of 
the town community in Britain gives me the highest 
possible estimate of the power of the masses to pro- 
duce beneficial changes through the selection of men 
best qualified for the work. 

The time has not yet arrived for as complete and 
effective municipal institutions throughout the Repub- 
lic as those of Britain, but we see in the more settled 
parts that we are arriving at similar results. While, 
7 



98 Triumphant Democracy, 

therefore, the municipalities of the old land are not ex- 
celled by any /in the new, and are upon the average 
better, the country districts of Britain have institutions 
which are a disgrace to a people. The stolid ignorance 
of the masses, their seeming contentedness with a life 
befitting the swineherds of early Saxon times, their 
dependence upon what they call their "betters," and 
the sycophantic vices which aristocratic rule ever pro- 
duces in the poor, are positively sickening to the 
American, who naturally contrasts the situation with 
that at home, and especially contrasts the men and 
women produced by the two systems. 

'' You see then," says the narrow, uninformed Tory 
squire, as he shows his American visitor the condition 
of the masses around him ; " you see how utterly unfit 
these people are for what you call self-government and 
the equality of the citizen. Bless you ! if we didn't 
look after them they couldn't live." He does not 
often hear the proper reply, but I flatter myself he 
does sometimes. " Give these people all the rights and 
privileges you possess in this district, and before you 
die, unless you drop off suddenly, the result will sur- 
prise you. Never can they be transformed from practi- 
cal serfdom except by imposing upon them the duties 
of citizens, and then educating them to the proper per- 
formance of those duties. You are just like the foolish 
mother who v/ould not permit her boy to go near the 
water till he had learned to swim. Throw him in. Be 



Conditions of Life, 99 

at his side to see that he does not quite drown, but be 
careful not to assist too much. Don't bolster him up 
until he is exhausted and ready to sink." This same 
Tory squire will descant at dinner upon the mission 
his country holds for the improvement of inferior races 
throughout the world, wholly oblivious to the fact that 
it would be difficult to find among any subject race in 
any part of the world a more ignorant, debased, and 
poverty-stricken community than that which the auto- 
cratic system of his class has produced within a few miles 
of his own gate. No man can see so clearly the mote in 
his brother's eye and be so blind to the beam in his own 
as the country magnate of England. He feels, at least 
he professes to feel, for every people but his own. 

A short description of the republican country or- 
ganizations will probably be interesting to the British 
people, and even to the American who is too apt to 
enjoy his blessings without paying much attention to 
their sources. The subdivisions of States into coun- 
ties, and of counties into townships for purposes of local 
self-government, have not been made upon a uniform 
plan ; the earlier States present many points of differ- 
ence in these divisions, but the newer States of the 
West and Northwest, which combine much the greater 
area of the country, may be said to follow the same 
general mode. It is that alone which I think worth 
while to describe, since it is the recent and distinctively 

American practice. 
L.01 0. 



lOO Triumphant Democracy, 

Iowa is one of the most creditable communities in 
the Union, and I shall give a glimpse into her local 
governments. The genesis of these home parliaments 
is very simple. First comes a settler, axe in hand, who 
erects a log cabin, clears the ground, and plants what- 
ever seeds he may be blessed with. Then comes an- 
other and another who do the same upon adjoining land 
until a dozen or more families are near together. Two 
wants are now felt — roads or paths between these 
houses, and from the hamlet to the nearest market 
town or railway station, and a school for the children. 
There is no central authority to provide these, and 
finally the hardy settlers resolve to have a meeting and 
talk matters over. They vote to tax themselves and 
construct them. Somebody must be designated to 
assess the tax, somebody to collect it, some one to 
supervise the work, and some one to keep the accounts, 
etc. Here are the beginnings of the tax assessor, col- 
lector, county supervisor, and town clerk, and after a 
while to these are added the constable and the justice 
of the peace. 

Many a township record begins like that of Burling- 
ton in Calhoun County, Michigan. 

" Organized in 1837, and held its first township meeting April 3 
of that year, electing Justus Goodwin, supervisor ; O. C. Freeman, 
town clerk ; Justus Goodwin, Gibesia Sanders, and Moses S. 
Gleason, justices of the peace ; Leon Haughtailing, constable and 
collector ; established six road districts ; voted $100 to build a 



Conditions of Life, loi 

bridge across the St. Joseph River, and $50 for bridging Nottawa 
Creek ; voted $50 for common schools, and $5 bounty for wolf 
scalps." 

Ah, that $50 for common schools ! That was the 
vote of votes, gentlemen. Just see, wherever we peer 
into the first tiny springs of the national life, how this 
true panacea for all the ills of the body politic bubbles 
forth — education, education, education. Through all 
the history of the land runs this care for the golden 
thread of knowledge, upon which to string the blessings 
and achievements of an educated, triumphant Democ- 
racy. 

And will you note also that no mention Is made of 
the '' birth " or '' rank" of these village Hampdens. It 
may safely be inferred that neither was thought of in 
that democratic meeting. The fittest and best man 
was what the occasion demanded, and no doubt wise 
choice was made upon the only sensible basis : 

" The tools to those who can best use them." 

The township is, as a rule, six miles square, as all 
the territories are divided into such areas by the gov- 
ernment surveyors. As population increases, twelve to 
fifteen townships band together and form the greater po- 
litical division, the county, the larger Home Rule circle. 

The county ofificials are usually elected for terms of 
two years, although in many States annual elections are 
held. Suffrage is invariably universal, and electoral dis- 



I02 Triu7npha7it Democracy, 

tricts equal. All officials are paid, but their salaries are 
extremely moderate. The county town is selected, of 
course, in democratic fashion by a fair vote. By vote 
of the people are elected at short intervals not only 
all county political officials, including the sheriffs and 
other magistrates having authority, and the county 
superintendent of education, the road supervisors, and 
guardians of the poor, but the judges themselves, and 
why not ? Who are so deeply interested in the able and 
pure administration of justice as the masses of the peo- 
ple, the poorer classes of the people who may be 
trusted to elect the men least likely to lean unduly to 
the side of the rich, the powerful, and the strong? If 
judges must have leanings, and being but human, they 
must be influenced, even unconsciously, by their en- 
vironments, by all means let their failings lean to vir- 
tue's side, which is with very rare exceptions the side 
of the poor and the weak. 

Many counties at last form the third and largest cir- 
cle of Home Rule, the State, which in turn with other 
States constitute the Federal system of the Republic. 
Thus there are centres within centres of Home Rule, 
and the experience gained of their healthfulness in 
matters political is such as to bring about the gene- 
ral rule that the central authority shall do nothing 
which the State can do for itself, the State nothing 
which the county can do for itself, and the county 
nothing for the township which it can do for itself. As 



Conditions of Life. 103 

sure as the sun shines, in proportion as government 
recedes from the people immediately interested, it 
becomes liable to abuse. Whatever authority can be 
conveniently exercised in primary assemblies should, 
therefore, be placed there, for there it is certain to pro- 
duce satisfactory results. 

Jefferson was indeed a far-seeing statesman, and he 
says : 

"These wards, called townships in New England, are the 
vital principle of their governments; and have proved themselves 
the wisest inventions ever devised by the wit of man for the perfect 
exercise of self-government and for its preservation." 

The American believes in Home Rule down to the 
smallest divisions, and has shown an admirable dislike 
of centralization. He will not call upon any authority 
to help him as long as he can help himself. Divide 
society into as many and as small divisions as you 
please, the smallest still remains a complete epitome — 
a microcosm of the whole. The council of a city is a 
perfect miniature of the Imperial Assembly. The ob- 
server recognizes its pocket editions of Cleveland, Glad- 
stone, Blaine, and Salisbury ; in the life of the city 
there stand the local Beecher and the local Spurgeon, 
the Spencer, Fiske, Huxley, Marsh, the Drs, Flint, Den- 
nis, Mackenzie, the Black and the Howells. Yes, it has 
even its Arnold, Holmes, Lowell, Browning, and Whit- 
man — all in miniature, no doubt, as befits the small 
stage upon which these tiny actors perform. Men and 



I04 TriMmpha7it Democracy. 

women divide into a few classes, and in every village 
these classes exist, and the smaller the body the more 
clearly defined the line between them in society. Oh, 
yes, there is even society in these villages, and leaders 
of fashion too — all the absurd things as well as the 
good things are present, not one missing ; for as each 
grain composing the block of marble has within itself 
all that makes marble marble, so each gathering of 
men and women, no matter how small, has all that 
makes empires empires. Statesmen have but to allow 
free play to these forces to produce harmonious action. 
The American always does this in town and country. 
The Briton has pursued a different course, except re- 
cently in the towns, and the effect of exclusion from 
the management of their local affairs upon the charac- 
ter of the masses throughout the country districts has 
been deplorable. They are not yet men, they are in 
spirit only serfs. But as the right to vote for members 
of Parliament was granted them last year, and they have 
just voted en masse against the ruling class, the tide 
has begun to turn at last, and there must soon arise 
among them an irresistible movement for Home Rule 
within their own small divisions. 

The truest account I have found of the condition of 
the masses of the American people who live in the 
villages and small towns, as distinguished from the large 
cities and from the country, is that concerning New 
England in Professor Fiske's excellent little book, 



Conditions of Life, 105 

"American Political Ideas." I give my readers this 
description, and certify of my own knowledge to its en- 
tire truthfulness : 

" As a rule, the head of each family owns the house in which 
he lives, and the ground on which it is built. The relation of 
landlord and tenant, though not unknown, is not commonly met 
with. No sort of social distinction or political privilege is associ- 
ated with the ownership of land, and the legal differences between 
real and personal property, especially as regards ease of transfer, 
have been reduced to the smallest minimum that practical conven- 
ience will allow. Each householder, therefore, though an absolute 
proprietor, cannot be called a miniature lord of the manor, be- 
cause there exists no permanent dependent class such as is implied 
in the use of such a phrase. Each larger proprietor attends in 
person to the cultivation of his own land, assisted perhaps by his 
own sons, or by neighbors working for hire in the leisure left over 
from the care of their own smaller estates. So, in the interior of 
the house, there is usually no domestic service that is not per- 
formed by the mother of the family and the daughters. Yet, in 
spite of this universality of manual labor, the people are as far as 
possible from presenting the appearance of peasants. Poor or 
shabbily-dressed people are rarely seen, and there is no one in the 
village whom it would be proper to address in a patronizing tone, 
or who would not consider it a gross insult to be offered a shilling. 
As with poverty, so with dram-drinking and with crime ; all alike 
are conspicuous by their absence. In a village of one thousand 
inhabitants there will be a poor-house, where five or six decrepit 
old people are supported at the common charge ; and there will be 
one tavern, where it is not easy to find anything stronger to drink 
than light beer or cider. The danger from thieves is so slight that 
it is not always thought necessary to fasten the outer doors of the 



io6 Triumphant Democracy. 

house at night. The universality of literary culture is as remark- 
able as the freedom with which all persons engage in manual 
labor. The village of a thousand inhabitants will be very likely to 
have a public circulating library, in which you may find Professor 
Huxley's Lay Sermons, or Sir Henry Maine's Ancient Law ; it will 
surely have a high-school, and half a dozen other schools for small 
children. A person unable to read and write is as great a rarity 
as an albino, or a person with six fingers. The farmer who 
threshes his own corn and cuts his own firewood has very likely a 
piano in his family sitting-room, with the Atlantic Mo7ithly on the 
table, and Milton and Tennyson, Gibbon and Macaulay, on his 
shelves, while his daughter, who has baked bread in the morning, 
is, perhaps, ready to paint on china in the afternoon. In former 
times theological questions largely occupied the attention of the 
people ; and there is probably no part of the world where the 
Bible has been more attentively read, or where the mysteries of 
Christian doctrine have, to so great an extent, been made the sub- 
ject of earnest discussion in every household. Hence, we find in 
the New England of to-day a deep religious sense, combined with 
singular flexibility of mind and freedom of thought." 

Such is the Democracy ; such its conditions of life. 
In the presence of such a picture can it be maintained 
that the rule of the people is subversive of government 
and religion ? Where have monarchical institutions 
developed a community so delightful in itself, so intel- 
ligent, so free from crime or pauperism — a community 
in which the greatest good of the greatest number is so 
fully attained, and one so well calculated to foster the 
growth of self-respecting men — which is the end civil- 
ization seeks? 



Conclitio7is of Life. ^ 107 

" For ere man made us citizens 
God made us men.'' 

The republican Is necessarily self-respecting, for the 
laws of his country, in full accord with the laws of God, 
begin by making him a man indeed, the equal of 
other men ; and believe me, my readers, the man who 
most respects himself will be found the man who most 
respects the rights and feelings of others. 

The rural Democracy of America could be as soon 
induced to sanction the confiscation of the property of 
their richer neighbors, or to vote for any violent or dis- 
creditable measure, as it could be led to surrender the 
President for a king. Free institutions develop all the 
best and noblest characteristics, and these always lead 
in the direction of the golden rule. These honest, pure, 
contented, industrious, patriotic people really do con- 
sider what they would have others do to them. They 
ask themselves what is fair? Nor is there in Britain so 
conservative a body of men ; but then it is the equality 
of the citizen — just and equal laws — republicanism, 
they are resolved to conserve. To conserve these they 
are at all times ready to fight and, if need be, to die; 
for, to men who have once tasted of the elixir of politi- 
cal equality, life under unequal conditions could possess 
no charm. 

To every man is committed in some degree, as a 
sacred trust, the manhood of man. This he may not 
himself infringe or permit to be infringed by others. 



io8 Triumphant Democracy, 

Hereditary dignities, political inequalities, do infringe 
the rights of man and hence are not to be tolerated. 
The true democrat must live the pger of his fellows, 
or die struggling to become so. 

It only remains for those still held in the toils of 
feudalism in the parent land to vindicate their right to 
rise to the full stature of equal citizenship, since by the 
greater part of the English speaking race this position 
has been already acquired through the Triumphant 
Democracy. 



CHAPTER V. 

OCCUPATIONS. 

" All nations have their message from on high. 
Each the Messiah of some central thought 
For the fulfilment and delight of Man : 
One has to teach that labor is divine." — Lowell. 

Such is the mission of the Republic, for there are 
few drones in the repubhcan hive, and these are not 
honored. If a man would eat he must work. A Hfe of 
elegant leisure is the life of an unworthy citizen. The 
Republic does not owe him a living, it is he who owes 
the Republic a life of usefulness. Such is the republi- 
can idea. 

During the colonial period the industries of America 
were cramped and repressed by the illiberal policy of 
the imperial government. The occupations of the 
people were necessarily confined to those connected 
with the cultivation of the soil. The varied pursuits 
v^^hich now distinguish the Republic were unknown. 
" The colonies have no right to manufacture even so 
much as a horse-shoe nail," was the dictum of a leading 
English statesman ; and in accordance with this doctrine, 
the early settlers were hampered by restrictions which, 
but for their injurious effect on American industries, 



no Trmmphant Democracy, 

would appear ludicrous to us of modern times. The 
manufacture of hats was forbidden ; the making of 
paper gave offence ; and even the weaving of homespun 
cloth for domestic use was regarded as indicating a re- 
bellious spirit. Iron could not be manufactured beyond 
the condition of pig ; and none but British vessels were 
permitted to trade with the colonies. 

But do not let us reflect upon our mother-land for this. 
Even in pursuing this policy she was not behind her 
day. What were colonies for unless to be of direct ad- 
vantage to the country which created and fostered them ? 
Why should Britain undertake new outlets for her 
people and her commerce, if her children were to prove 
ungrateful and defeat the only end the parent-land had in 
view in nursing them into life ? Such was the accepted 
view of the time in regard to colonial possessions. It is 
to the credit of Britain that she now sees hov/ futile is 
the attempt to extend commerce through colonization, 
or to interfere with the internal affairs of her children. 
She permits them to foster what they please, to trade 
freely with all nations upon any terms the colonies fix 
for her own trade vv^ith them. True it must be said that 
her offspring are not very grateful children ; they turn 
against their mother with surprising harshness. When 
desired financial aid requires it, our Canadian friends 
flatter the dear old lady into opening her purse-strings, 
to give the spoiled child what she begs. Canada is 
very dutiful upon such occasions, but she taxes her 



Occupations. 1 1 1 

mother's products all the same to foster manufactures 
upon her own soil. 

The Republic boldly puts on a tariff and announces 
that she means to have within herself the manufacturing 
facilities .which distinguish her parent, and to beat her 
in manufacturing if possible ; and she has become the 
greatest manufacturing nation the world has ever known. 
I like this boldness; having set up for herself and being 
a free and independent State, the Republic has a right 
to do as she pleases. Canada's hypocritical and ungrate- 
ful conduct merits and inspires only contempt. She 
has no business to tax her good mother's manufactures 
to protect her own, but if she does it, she should at 
least cease her loyal whine and announce in honest 
fashion that she intends to assume the responsibilities 
of national existence and no longer to rely upon her 
mother's assistance. 

But why talk of Canada, or of any mere colony? 
What book, what invention, what statue or picture, 
what anything has a colony ever produced, or what 
man has grown up in any colony who has become 
known beyond his own local district ? None. Nor can 
a colony ever give to mankind anything of value beyond 
wood, corn, and beef. If Canada and the Australian 
colonies were free and independent republics, the world 
would soon see the harvest of democracy in noble works, 
and in great minds, and for the mother of these nations 
the result would be infinitely better even as to trade. 



112 . Triumphant Democracy. 

Besides she would be far prouder of her progeny, which 
in itself is not a bad return for a fond mother like her. 

If Lord Rosebery were to succeed in his amusing 
Imperial Federation fad (which, happily, is impossible), 
these nations in embryo would be stifled in their 
cradles. Imagine the great democratic continent of 
Australia really subject to the little island, and to 
the funny monarchy and its antiquated forms. I have 
heard of the tail which wagged the dog, but it must 
have been a very big tail and a very small dog. Brit- 
ain will form_ a very diminutive tail to the Australia 
of the next generation. No ; the English-speaking 
continents of America and Australia and the parent, 
Britain, will be separate political communities, but one 
day linked together in a league of peace, one provision 
of which will be that all international disputes shall be 
settled by it. 

With the independence of the Republic came the 
natural reaction of the suppression of occupations 
just spoken of. The reaction has not quite spent its 
force even to this day, so hard is it to eradicate 
national bitterness which springs from oppression. 
With surprising energy the people began to turn 
their condition of colonial dependence into a con- 
dition of national independence, industrial as well as 
political. The long European wars which followed 
fostered the embryo industries of the Republic by 
hindering the importation of European manufactures, 



Occupations. 113 

a result further assisted by a tariff; and, though dis- 
aster followed this system of over-stimulation, the 
eventual condition reached was eminently satisfac- 
tory. By the year 1830 many industries were firmly 
established, and since that period their development 
has proceeded with a regularity which even the ter- 
rible Civil War was unable to check. 

The occupations of the people of half a century 
ago appear strangely primitive when contrasted with 
those of present times. Indeed, the difference is more 
like that of five centuries than of five decades. Take 
as an example the shoe manufacture at Lynn, Mas- 
sachusetts. Fifty years ago a visitor to this village 
would have heard the beat, beat, beat of many ham- 
mers issuing from small wooden sheds erected against 
the sides of the houses. These were the sounds of the 
disciples of St. Crispin working away, with last upon 
knee, and making perhaps one pair of shoes per day. 
During the summer the same men became farmers 
or fishermen, and the village ceased to resound with 
the shoemakers* hammers. The present city of Lynn, 
with forty-five thousand inhabitants, has numerous 
fine buildings of great height and length, which are 
the lineal descendants of the little wooden sheds of 
fifty years ago. In these, boots and shoes are made 
by the million, and with hardly any handling by the 
sons of St. Crispin. Machines now do all the cut- 
ting, the hammering, and the sewing. Massachusetts 



114 Triumphant Democracy. 

is the shoe State par excellence. In 1835, according 
to Mulhall, there were in the State thirty thousand 
more bootmakers than in 1880, yet in the latter year 
the factories produced boots worth $70,000,000 (;^I4,- 
000,000) more than they did in 1835. 

Changes equally great took place in the nature of 
work in textile industries. In 1830, woollen, linen, and 
cotton manufactures were largely conducted in the 
household. In Hinton's " Topography of the United 
States " we read that " many thousands of families spin, 
and make up their own clothing, sheets, table-linen, 
etc. They purchase cotton yarn, and have it frequently 
mixed with their linen and woollen ; blankets, quilts, or 
coverlets, in short, nearly all articles of domestic use, 
are chiefly made in the family. It is supposed that 
two-thirds of all the clothing, linen, blankets, etc., of 
those inhabitants who reside in the interior of the 
country are of household manufacture. It is the same 
in the interior with both soap and candles." But many 
forces were at work revolutionizing the industrial 
methods of the day. The steam-engine was gradually 
replacing the water-wheel, or supplementing it when 
winter bound fast the rivers, thereby insuring to em- 
ployees regularity of work in factories, and releasing 
manufacturers from the incubus of idle capital during 
half the year. Then railroads and canals were rapidly 
increasing the facilities for distributing the products of 
manufacturing centres. Further great improvements 



Occupations. 115 

in machinery placed manual labor more and more at a 
discount. Thus, in 1834, a spindle would spin on an 
average from one-sixth to one-third more than it did 
a few years previous. Indeed, it was said in 1834, 
" that a person could spin more than double the weight 
of yarn in a given time than he could in 1829." And 
so there resulted a complete change in the manner of 
life of the people. Instead of working with the old- 
fashioned spinning-wheel in country farm-houses, or 
the hand-loom in the rural cottage, spinners and weav- 
ers gathered together in large towns. And here we 
have one cause of the great growth of towns as com- 
pared with the country, which has been referred to in a 
previous chapter. 

A large proportion of the people fifty years ago 
were engaged in agriculture, another pursuit in which 
mechanical appliances have since worked a complete 
revolution. The transformation is shown with start- 
ling vividness by two extracts : 

" Among new inventions to increase the pauperism of England, 
we observe a portable steam threshing machine." — New York 
Evening Star, August, 1 834. 

" Dr. Glin, of California, has forty-five thousand acres under 
wheat. On this farm is used an improved kind of machinery; each 
machine can cut, thresh, winnow, and bag sixty acres of wheat in a 
day." — MulhalVs Progress of the World, p. 499 (date, 1880). 

In view of such a contrast we hardly need the assur- 
ance of Mr. H. Murray, who, writing in 1834, says: 



il6 Triumpha7tt Democracy. 

" Agriculture is in its infancy in the United States." 
The statement which follows is also interesting : " The 
country," he adds, " is covered with dense dark woods. 
Even the State of New York is still three-fourths 
forest." Since that period the expansion of agriculture 
has been phenomenal. The farms of America equal the 
entire territory of the United Kingdom, France, Bel- 
gium, Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Portugal. The 
corn fields equal the extent of England, Scotland, and 
Belgium ; while the grain fields generally would overlap 
Spain. The cotton fields cover an area larger than 
Holland, and twice as large as Belgium. The rice 
fields, sugar, and tobacco plantations would also form 
kingdoms of no insignificant size. And such is the 
stage of advancement reached by American agricul- 
turists, that Mulhall estimates that one farmer like 
Dr. Glin or Mr. Dalrymple, with a field of wheat cover- 
ing a hundred square miles, can raise as much grain 
with four hundred farm servants as five thousand 
peasant proprietors in France. 

Notwithstanding this, it is pleasing to know that not 
even with the advantage here implied are these gigantic 
farms able to maintain the struggle against the smaller 
farms owned and cultivated by families. 

The Republic to-day is, as it ever was, a nation of 
workers. The idlers are few — much fewer than in any 
other great nation. A continent lies before the Ameri- 



Occupations, 1 1 7 

can, awaiting development. The rewards of labor are 
high ; and prizes are to be won in every pursuit. The 
family which strikes out boldly for the West, settles 
upon the soil and expends its labor upon it, may confi- 
dently look forward to reach independent circumstances 
long before old age. The mechanic with skill and 
energy rises first to foremanship and ultimately to a 
partnership or business of his own. As the country 
fills, these prizes naturally become more and more dififi- 
cult to secure ; but the very knowledge of this acts as 
an additional incentive, and impels men to " make hay- 
while the sun shines." 

The American works much harder than the Briton. 
His application is greater; his hours are longer; his 
holidays fewer. Until recently, a leisure class has 
scarcely been known ; and even now a man who is not 
engaged in some useful occupation lacks one claim to 
the respect of his fellows. The American must do 
something, even if disposed to be idle ; he is forced to 
join the army of toilers from sheer impossibility to find 
suitable companions for idle hours. One conversant 
with the mother and child lands is particularly struck 
with the difference between Britons and Americans in 
this regard. If a party of educated and agreeable 
gentlemen are wanted to join in a pleasure excursion, 
twenty are available in Britain to one in this high- 
pressure America. The American has always so much 
to do. Even when the family leaves home in the sum- 



1 1 8 Triumphant Democracy. 

mer, the man returns to town every few days to ham- 
mer away at something. The EngHsh gentleman, on 
the contrary, seems always to have a few days he can 
call his own for pleasure. Ladies are equally available 
upon both sides of the ferry. The American woman 
seems to have quite as much leisure as her English sis- 
ter. I must not fail to note, however, the signs of 
change which begin to appear. A small number of the 
best men of this generation, especially in the Eastern 
cities, having inherited fortunes, now devote them- 
selves to public cares, not necessarily political, as a 
Briton would infer, and discard the lower ambition of 
adding more to that which is enough. The roughest 
and most pressing work, that of clearing and settling 
the land, has been done to a great extent-; and the in- 
fluences of refinement and elevation are now patent 
everywhere. It is thus that a free society evolves that 
which is fitted for its highest ends. 

The census of 1880 shows that the number of per- 
sons pursuing gainful and reputable occupations was 
over seventeen and a quarter millions, or thirty-four 
and one-half per cent, of the total population. This 
proportion is greater than that shown by the census of 
1870. Each census is no doubt taken in a more thor- 
ough manner than the preceding one — the last being the 
most complete enumeration ever made of any people. 
But even allowing for this, it is evident that owing to 
the extensions of the factory system, the increased 



Occupations, 119 

division of labor, and especially to the greater number 
of occupations open to women, a larger proportion of 
Americans are now at work than ever before. 

The increased employment of women is very marked. 
In 1880 the ratio had increased to eleven hundred and 
ninety as against one thousand in 1870, nearly twelve 
per cent., while that of men increased only from one 
thousand to ten hundred and sixty-seven, less than 
seven per cent. It is clear that the American woman 
is steadily conquering her right to share with man 
many occupations from which she has been excluded. 
But her advance is, I fear, in no less degree indica- 
tive of a growing necessity to swell the earnings of 
the family. 

Lowthian Bell, when in America, remarked that he 
had heard always of great inventions made in manu- 
facturing by the Americans, and of their wonderful 
aptitude in this department of industry ; but he 
found after all that Britons had done a large part of 
this work. This is corroborated by the horse-shoe 
machines of Mr. Burden, a sturdy Scot ; Mr. Thomas, 
a Welshman, who first smelted pig-iron with anthra- 
cite coal ; Mr. Chisholm, of Dunfermline, Scotland, 
who has created the extensive steel rail and steel 
wire mills at Cleveland ; Isaac Stead, an enterprising 
Englishman, who first wove tapestry in Philadelphia; 
Mr. Wallace, founder of the famous brass mill at 
Ansonia, and many others. It is, indeed, quite inter- 



I20 Triumphant Democracy, 

esting to note how great a proportion of the manu- 
facturing of America is controlled by the foreign-born 
British. Forty-nine per cent, of all Scotch and English 
in the United States are engaged in manufactures — a 
ratio much higher than that shown by any other na- 
tionality. Immigrants from British America are also 
largely occupied in manufacture, the ratio being forty- 
four per cent. Native Americans are mostly engaged 
in agriculture, and contribute but nineteen per cent, 
of their number to manufactures. Forty-three per 
cent, of the Irish-born are engaged in personal and 
professional services. So it can still be claimed that 
Britons do the manufacturing of the world, and we 
must credit to our race, not only the hitherto un- 
equalled sum of products of our native land, but to 
a large extent the still greater sum of the Republic's. 
Only nineteen of every hundred Americans engage 
in manufacturing occupations against forty-nine per 
cent, of these tough Islanders — just three times as 
many in proportion to numbers — a ratio which is 
probably substantially maintained in their progeny. 
We must not let the Yankee claim all the credit for 
the manufacturing supremacy of his country. What 
would it have been but for the original stock? De- 
mocracy is entitled to all, for there is not in all the 
land one who is not a democrat. But, as between the 
native and imported democrat, the strain of British 
blood, never excelled if yet equalled, must be cred- 



Occupations, 



121 



ited with more than its due share. See, my country- 
men, of what your race is capable when reUeved from 
unjust laws and made the peers of any, under repub- 
lican institutions. Man is a thing of the spirit; the 
Westerner who weighed two hundred pounds when 
drowsy, and more than a ton when he was roused, 
is exactly like the man born under a king, and de- 
nied equality at birth, compared with himself when 
he is invested under the Repubhc with the mantle 
of sovereignty. The drowsy Briton becomes a force 

here. 

The earnings of the people compare as follows with 
those of England, where labor is better paid than else- 
where in Europe: 



AVERAGE IN COTTON MILLS. 

s. d. 
In England . . 19 7 per week. 
In America . . 24 i " 



AVERAGE IN WOOLLEN MILLS. 

s. d. 
In England . . 26 7 per week. 
In America . . 43 3 " 



ARTISAN AVERAGE. 



s. d. 



In England 31 o per week. 

In America, New York ... 54 6 " 
In " Chicago . . . . 5° ^ " 



The average per annum of operatives of all kinds is ^35 
6j. \d. in England against llZ in the United States. 

Messrs. Clark & Co. and Coates & Co., the exten- 
sive thread manufacturers of Paisley, Scotland, who 



122 Triumphant Democracy. 

have similar mills on this side, have stated in evidence 
that the wages paid in their American mills are fully 
double those paid in Paisley. In all branches of the 
iron and steel manufacture wages here are fully double 
what they are in Britain. 

The cost of living has been much greater in the 
Republic, not that the workingman cannot live here 
as cheaply as in Britain, but that he will not do so. 
Large earnings and certainty of steady employment 
lead to increased wants and to their gratification. The 
workers demand better houses and furniture, better 
food, better clothing, more books and newspapers, and 
spend their larger earnings to secure these. There are 
one hundred and seventy-five thousand pianos, organs 
and harmoniums annually made in America, and three- 
fourths of these remain in the country. Nothing is 
more suggestive than a fact like this, showing as It 
does that thousands purchase these instruments, which 
those in similar positions in other countries would 
never dream of possessing. 

The relative cost of living in Britain and America 
has been subjected to a great change during the past 
few years in favor of the latter. It is astonishing how 
cheap the food and clothing of the masses have be- 
come. The food of course never was as high as in 
Britain, for most of it goes from this side. It was in 
clothing that the American was at a disadvantage. 
Articles of similar kind are now asserted to be quite as 



Occupations, 123 

cheap throughout America as in Britain. House rent 
has fallen very much indeed. 

The best authority we have is Mr. Jos. D. Weeks, 
Secretary of the Western Iron Association, an English- 
man by descent, who spent much time upon the other 
side investigating this important subject. I give his 
letter to me : 

*' Pittsburgh, Pa., December i6, 1885. 
*' My dear Mr. Carnegie : 

" Absence from the city has prevented an earlier reply to yours 
regarding relative cost of living in the United States and Great 
Britain. 

" The purchasing power of a dollar in the hands of an Ameri- 
can workman is considerably in excess of what its equivalent 
would be in the hands of an English workman. That is, a dollar 
will buy more food in the United States than 4^. \\d. will in Eng- 
land. It will buy considerably more flour (as you know but little 
bread is bought in this country compared with the amount bought 
abroad, most families here baking their own bread), more meat, 
provisions, bacon, ham, vegetables, eggs, butter, cheese, farm 
products of all kinds, tea, coffee, more oil, a little less sugar, in 
many parts of the country more fuel. As to dry goods and cloth- 
ing, it will buy more sheeting, shirting, prints or calicoes, and as 
much of many kinds of clothing such as workingmen wear, but in 
other cases less. House rents are higher here. It is, of course, to 
be understood that I am speaking, so far as relates to clothing, of 
the grades that most workmen buy. Of course imported cloths 
cost more, as does what is called high class tailoring. 

" I made a very careful estimate once with the following 
result : 



124 



Triumphant Democracy. 



ITEMS 

OF 

EXPENDITURE. 



Subsistence . . 
Clothing . . . 
Rent . . . . 
Fuel . . . . 
Sundry expenses 



Total 



PERCENTAGE OF THE EXPENDITURE OF A FAMILY 
OF A WORKINGMAN WITH AN INCOME OF 



From $300 to 
C£6o to ^90) a year. 



Per cent. 
641 



7 

20 

6 

3 



97 
3 



100 



From $450 to 
$600 0^90 to ;£i2o) a year. 



Per cent. 
631 



10.5 
155 

6 

5 



95 



100 



Note. — Above from Report Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Sta- 
tistics. 

" Now, I estimate that on subsistence the American working- 
man has an advantage of at least twenty-five per cent. ; on cloth- 
ing, nothing; on rent, the English workingman has an advantage 
of thirty-three and one-third per cent. ; and on fuel and sundry ex- 
penses I concede an equality. Then take the above table as repre- 
senting each one dollar expenditure of the American workingman. 





RELATIVE EXPENDITURE OF AN AMERICAN AND ENGLISH 
WORKMAN. 




Income $300 to $450 
per year. 


Income $450 to $600 
per year. 




A merican. 


English. 


A merican. 


English. 


Subsistence . . 
Clothing .... 

Rent 

Fuel 

Sundry expenses . 


64 

7 

20 
6 
3 


80 

7 

13 

6 

3 


63 
10.5 

155 

6 
5 


78.75 
10.50 
1037 

6 

5 


Total . . . 


100 


no 


100.00 


110.62 



Ocaipations, 125 

" That Is, if the relative modes of living in England and the 
United States of two classes of workmen are the same, it will cost 
ten per cent, more in England than in the United States, 

" But the English workman, as a rule, does not live as well as 
the American, and it is just here that the fallacy exists in the 
statement that it costs the American workman more to live than it 
does the English. It does, for he lives better, spends more money; 
but this is not the true basis of comparison. The real question is : 
In which country will one dollar, or its equivalent, purchase more 
of a given article of consumption of a given grade ? I answer un- 
hesitatingly, on the whole, in the United States. 

" Very truly, 

"Jos. D. Weeks." 

As a rule, the American workingman is steadier than 
his fellow in Britain — much more sober and possessed 
of higher tastes. Among his amusements is found 
scarcely a trace of the ruder practices of British manu- 
facturing districts, such as cock-fighting, badger-baiting, 
dog-fighting, prize-fighting. Wife-beating is scarcely ever 
heard of, and drunkenness is quite rare. The manufac- 
turer in America considers it cause for instant dismis- 
sal, and is able to act, and does act upon this theory, 
thereby insuring a standard of sobriety throughout the 
works. During all my experience among workingmen 
I have rarely seen a native American workman under 
the Influence of liquor, and I have never known of any 
serious inconvenience or loss of time in any works re- 
sulting from the intemperance of the men. Even on 
the Fourth of July the blast-furnaces are run with ac- 



126 Triumphant Democracy. 

customed regularity, and if the " glorious Fourth " be 
passed successfully, all other temptations are naturally 
harmless. It is upon Independence Day, if upon any 
day in the calendar, that the laboring citizen feels im- 
pelled to give vent to his feelings in violent demonstra- 
tions of irrepressible joy. 

This calls to mind the story of one of the principal 
iron masters of Western Pennsylvania in days gone by. 
Passing his mill on the Fourth, on his way to church 
as a patriotic duty (for in those times churches were 
open for service on that day, and preachers were accus- 
tomed to torture the American eagle till it screamed), 
he heard the sound of busy hammers clanking rivets up. 
Stopping his buggy, he listened a moment in doubt, 
then alighted and walked to the spot, to find a party of 
men hard at work repairing a leaking boiler. At work 
on the Fourth of July ! Degenerate republicans ! when 
he was on his way to church to thank God for establish- 
ing the inalienable rights of man. He was the son of 
an Englishman, and his father had left England because 
of his republicanism. He could not stand it, but cleared 
the mill of every man, swearing he would not have a 
man about him who would work a stroke upon the sa- 
cred day. His remonstrance to the manager was no less 
emphatic. " What are you doing," he roared, " repair- 
ing boilers to-day ? Aren't there plenty of Saturday 
nights and Simdays for this kind of work?" To his 
last day that manager never completely regained the 



Occupations. 127 

respect and confidence of my dear old patriotic friend. 
This desecration of the Fourth, although forgiven, was 
never forgotten. The settlement with the offender, too, 
was only partial ; for my friend, while admitting that the 
manager was a competent man, always had a qualifying 
" but " at the end of the eulogy. And the " but," as we 
all knew, had reference to the one unpardonable offence. 
The human bees in the American hive work in four 
grand divisions. First, seven and three-quarter millions 
are detailed to tickle Mother Earth with the hoe, that 
she may smile with a harvest, and to tend the herds and 
flocks — the cattle upon a thousand hills and the sheep 
in the dewy fields, through which wander the com- 
plaining brooks, making the meadows green. A pleas- 
ant, healthful life is this, redolent of nature's sweetest 
odors, full of the rest and quiet of peaceful primitive 
days. These toilers grow the roses of life, and are to 
be much envied ; and if the farmer's life in America 
is a life of toil, it is none the worse for that. It is 
the idle man who is to be pitied. The farmer is the 
man of independent mind, 

" Who holds his plough in joy." 

Next to these envied out-of-door workers comes the 
second division — the manufacturers, three million eight 
hundred thousand strong — about half as many as the 
devotees of Ceres, these hardy sons of Vulcan. Every 
form of inventive genius or of mechanical skill finds 



128 Triumphant Democracy. 

fitting occupation in this army. Variety of pursuit 
is of vital consequence to a nation, and we find it here. 
Pent up in mills and factories from morning to night, 
begrimed with smoke and dirt, amid the ceaseless 
roar of machinery, these cunning toilers fashion the 
things conceived by the mind of man — from pins to 
anchors. In this class are embraced those who literally 
live in the bowels of the earth, who down deep in 
unfathomable mines rob the earth of her hidden 
treasures, and drag them forth for the uses of man. 
It is notable, that while in agriculture only seven 
per cent, of the division are females, in this branch 
the ratio is no less than sixteen per cent. Women 
do so much of the lighter manufacturing work in 
America, more than six hundred thousand being so 
employed. This division excites our sympathy; their 
work is the least pleasing of all. Shut out from the 
sky, and closed in mine or factory, they seem banished 
from nature's presence. This is the class of whom we 
should think most in our Sunday regulations. On 
that one day let it be through nature that they look 
at nature's God. To shut up within walls on the 
seventh day the prisoners who have been incar- 
cerated all the six, would be cruel. Is there no 
reformer who will act upon the assertion that the 
groves were God's first temples, and take the toilers 
there in their only day of liberty? The annual camp^ 
meeting in the wood is fast dying out, yet it had 



Occupations, 129 

its advantages. Poor men and women got a glimpse 
of nature there. 

The service division, which comes next, sHghtly out- 
numbers the preceding class, for it reaches four mill- 
ions. The professions — the minister, the doctor, the 
lawyer, the author, etc., are all embraced ; fortunately, 
the *' noble " profession of arms (that means the butch- 
ering of men) need not be counted in the Republic. 
The domestic servants are in themselves a host ; the 
Irish take to this branch much more generally than 
any other race. Of course, the percentage of females 
is here far greater than in any other of the main divi- 
sions, one million three hundred and sixty thousand 
domestic Amazons being enrolled, or one-third of the 
whole. 

The fourth and last industrial corps is that conduct- 
ing trade and transportation, numbering a million and 
eight hundred thousand, only sixty thousand of whom 
are females. These, combined, constitute the seventeen 
millions of working bees who make the honey of the 
national hive, in which there is no room for those who 
** toil not, neither do they spin." In that hive the 
drones are not stung to death at intervals ; they are 
not suffered to come to life. If a specimen happens to 
escape the massacre, and walks about doing no useful 
work to justify his existence, the public regard him 
much as the countryman did the "dude" (masher) 
whom he saw for the first time promenading Broad- 
9 



130 Triumphant Democracy, 

way : '' Lor*, what lots of queer game one sees when he 
leaves home without his gun ! " There is an inherited 
suspicion in the republican breast that the only thing 
good for the useless, idle, fox-hunting, pleasure-loving 
man, as well as for the State, if not to shoot him, is 
at least *'to bounce him." When the fair young 
American asked the latest lordling who did her coun- 
try the honor to visit it, how the aristocratic leisure- 
classes spent their time, he replied : " Oh, they go 
about from one house to another, don't you know, and 
enjoy themselves, you know. They never do any work, 
you know." " Oh," she replied, " we have such people 
too — tramps." 

" Allah ! Allah ! cries the stranger — 
Wondrous sights the traveller sees ; 
But the greatest is the latest, 
Where the drones control the bees." 

It was evidently not the democratic division of the 
English people which the Eastern traveller visited, but 
the poor oppressed land of monarchy and aristocracy, 
where honest labor naturally ranks below hereditary 
sloth. 



CHAPTER VI. 

EDUCATION. 

" There being education, there will be no distinction of classes." — 

Confucius. 
"Education is the only interest worthy the deep, controlling anxiety 
of the thoughtful man." — Wendell Phillips. 

"The fair fabric of justice raised by Numa," says 
Plutarch, " passed rapidly away because it was not 
founded upon education." No truer reason can be 
given for the decay of everything good in a State. 
Upon no foundation but that of popular education can 
man erect the structure of an enduring civilization. 
This is the basis of all stability, and underlies all prog- 
ress. Without it the State architect builds in vain. 

Whether the sturdy Pilgrim Fathers were con- 
versant with the conceptions of the Greek thinkers 
who were filled with projects for universal education, 
whether they were versed in the speculations of Plato's 
" Republic " or Aristotle's " Politics," is doubtful ; but it 
is certain that they were imbued v/ith the spirit which 
animated Luther and Knox in regard to the education 
of the masses. The true parent of modern education 
was the Reformation, for did not Luther himself say 
that if he were not a preacher he should be a teacher, 



132 Triumphant Democracy, 

as he thought the latter the more important office? 
John Knox demanded a public school for every parish 
in Scotland, and it was the Protestant State of Ger- 
many that first undertook the education of the whole 
people. Fortunate indeed for the world that the de- 
mand for religious freedom necessarily involved the 
priceless boon of secular education. 

The preamble to the Massachusetts school law of 
1642 tells the story : 

*' It being one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep 
men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former times, keep- 
ing them in an unknown tongue, so in these latter times, by per- 
suading from the use of tongues, so that all at least the true sense 
and meaning of the original might be clouded and corrupted with 
false glosses of deceivers ; and to the end that learning may not be 
buried in the grave of our forefathers, in church and common- 
wealth, the Lord assisting our endeavors : 

" It is therefore ordered by this Court and authority thereof, 
that every township within this jurisdiction, after the Lord hath 
increased them to the number of fifty householders, shall then 
forthwith appoint one within their town to teach all such chil- 
dren, as shall resort to him, to write and read, wtiose wages shall 
be paid, either by their parents or masters of such children, or 
by the inhabitants in general, by way of supply, as the major part 
of those who order the prudentials of the town shall appoint ; pro- 
vided that those who send their children be not oppressed by pay- 
ing much more than they can have them taught for in other 
towns." 

In 1700 the State of Connecticut enacted its system 



Education, 133 

of public instruction, which embraced the following as 
its first obligation : 

An obligation on every parent and guardian of 
children, " not to suffer so much barbarism in any of 
their families as have a single child or apprentice 
unable to read the holy word of God, and the good 
laws of the colony ; " and also, " To bring them up to 
some lawful calling or employment " under a penalty 
for each offence. 

The right of private judgment presupposes a judg- 
ment to judge with. This presupposes knowledge, 
and knowledge is the result of education. Hence, 
the first duty of the State, as the Fathers saw it, was 
to educate the children thereof. Our Pilgrim Fathers 
carried with them from their old to their new home 
a realizing sense of the importance of this subject. 
It may well be said of them as Froude has said of the 
Scotch — *' With them education was a passion," for 
scarcely had they got roofs over their heads in the 
forest before we find them establishing public schools 
and appointing schoolmasters. Here is a copy of one 
of the earliest records of Boston : 

"The 13th of ye 2nd month, 1635. It was then generally- 
agreed upon yt our brother Philemon Purmount shall be intreated 
to become schoolmaster for ye teaching and nourturing of all 
children with us." 

Next year, only six years after the first settlement 
of Boston, four hundred pounds was appropriated 



134 Triumphant Democracy, 

towards the establishment of a college. This sum 
exceeded the entire tax levy of the colony for the 
year. 

Eleven years later the State of Massachusetts made 
the support of schools compulsory and education uni- 
versal and free ; and we read that " in 1665, every 
town had a free school, and, if it contained over one 
hundred families, a grammar school. In Connecticut 
every town that did not keep a school for three months 
in the year was liable to a fine." 

Such was the policy adopted by the men of the people 
who sought these northern shores that they might estab- 
lish and enjoy the blessings of civil and religious liberty. 

Far different was the policy of the aristocratic ele- 
ment with which Virginia was cursed. Twenty years 
after the establishment of free schools by law in New 
England, Sir William Berkeley, Governor of Virginia, 
wrote : 

" I thank God there are no free schools or printing, and I hope 
we shall not have them these hundred years. For learning has 
brought heresy and disobedience and sects into the world, and 
printing has divulged them, and libels against the best government. 
God keep us from both." 

Even in the early part of the eighteenth century, 
says Sir Charles Lyell, *' there was not one bookshop in 
Virginia, and no printing-presses," though *' there were 
several in Boston, with no less than five printing offices, 
a fact which reflects the more credit on the Puritans, 



Education, 135 

because at the same period (1724) there were no less 
than thirty-four counties in the mother country, Lanca- 
shire being one of the number, in which there was no 
printer." 

Thus are the ideas and methods of democracy and 
aristrocracy contrasted ! The former is ever seeking the 
education of the masses ; the latter from its very nature 
is ever seeking to restrain education to the few, well 
knowing that privilege dies as knowledge spreads. It was 
death to teach a slave to read. The instinct which led 
the slave-holder to keep his slave in ignorance was a true 
one. Educate man, and his shackles fall. Free educa- 
ation may be trusted to burst every obstruction which 
stands in the path of the democracy towards its goal, 
the equality of the citizen, and this it will reach quietly 
and without violence, as the swelling sapling in its 
growth breaks its guard. ' " Ballots not Bullets" is the 
motto of educated republicanism, and '' Obedience to 
Law " its fundamental requirement. 

Owing to the incompleteness of early censuses it is 
not easy to ascertain the exact condition of education in 
1830. But contemporary writers sometimes make 
estimates which are accessible. From these we learn 
that in 1831 the proportion of school children to popula- 
tion in America was fifteen per cent., or double the 
European average, and second only to that of Prussia. 
It would have been as high as twenty-tv/o per cent, 
(much beyond the Prussian average) but for the slave 



136 Triu7nphant Democracy, 

States, where the negro slaves were not educated." In 
1832 a European visitor said : 

" The State of New York stands foremost on the list of school 
children. It counts in the proportion of one to three and one-half of 
the number of its inhabitants ; the New England States one to five ; 
Pennsylvania and New Jersey, one to eight ; Illinois one to thirteen ; 
Kentucky, one to twenty-five and so on. By way of comparison, I 
may just mention that Wurtemberg has one to six ; Bavaria and 
Prussia, one to seven ; Scotland, one to ten ; France, one to seven- 
teen and one-half; Russia, one to three hundred and sixty-seven." 

The condition of the countr^^ in regard to education 
in 1834 is summed up by a contemporary as follows: 

" In the New England States there are not less than five hun- 
dred thousand children educated at the common schools, and in 
1830 there were four hundred and seventy-three thousand, five 
hundred and eight white persons in these States between, the ages of 
five and fifteen, and allowing for the increase of population, we 
may say that the benefits of elementary education are universally 
difi'used. 

" In the States to the south and west of New York, however, 
there is reason to believe that there were one million two hundred 
and ten thousand children without the knowledge and benefits of 
education.'' 

Many English readers will no doubt be surprised to 
learn that the general government has nothing what- 
ever to do with the education of the people. This 
duty belongs to the different States, and is fulfilled by 
them each in its own w^ay. A system of public educa- 
tion is in operation in every State and Territory in the 
Union, and twenty-eight out of the thirty-eight States 



Educatio7t, 137 

have provided normal schools for the training of teach- 
ers. There are ninety-eight of these institutions. All 
have recognized the duty of providing for every child 
a free common school education ; and in furtherance of 
this end the general government has frequently made 
liberal grants of public lands to the various States. 
Even as early as the Continental Congress the question 
of affording aid to education was discussed ; and in 1785, 
immediately after the close of the War of Independence, 
Congress passed an act reserving for school purposes 
the sixteenth section of each township of the public 
land of the Territories. When the Territories were ad- 
mitted as States they were made trustees of these 
lands. Under this and subsequent laws, twelve of the 
new States came into the Union possessed of mag- 
nificent educational endowments. In 1848, Congress 
granted an additional section in each township for the 
same purpose. Nearly sixty-eight million acres of land 
have been given in this manner to twenty-seven States. 
Further special grants of land have from time to time 
been made for the creation of State universities ; and 
in 1862 each State received a grant either of land 
within the State or an equivalent amount of scrip, for 
the purpose of establishing and endowing schools of 
agriculture and the mechanical arts. The total amount 
of land hitherto devoted by the general government to 
educational endowments exceeds seventy-eight millions 
of acres, an area greater than the whole of England, 
Scotland, and Ireland combined. 



138 



Triumphant Democracy. 



Throughout the history of the Republic great liber- 
ality has been displayed in the grants for educational pur- 
poses. The people who cannot be induced to make the 
salaries of officials half as large as those of the officials of 
the petty powers of Europe, nevertheless urge their re- 
presentatives to vote millions upon millions for educa- 
tional purposes. The ratio of money spent on the army 
to that spent on education is in startling contrast to 
that of Europe. America is the only country which 
spends more upon education than on war or prepara- 
tion for war. Great Britain does not spend one-fourth 
as much, France not one-eleventh, or Russia one-thirty- 
third as much on education as on the army. Here 
are the figures, which the patient democracies of Europe 
will do well to ponder. How long yet will men, 
instigated by royal and aristocratic jealousies, spend their 
wealth and best energies upon means for slaughtering 
each other ! 

ANNUAL EXPENDITURES ON 





ARMAMENTS. 


EDUCATION. 


United Kingdom . 


;^28,900,ooo 


;!^6,685,ooo 


France .... 


35,000,000 


3,200,000 


Germany 


20,000,000 


6,900,000 


Russia .... 


33,000,000 


1 ,000, 000 


Austria. 


13,400,000 


2,900,000 


Italy .... 


18,900,000 


1,100,000 


Spain .... 


6, 300,000 


1,200,000 


Other European States . 


8,300,000 


2,100,000 




;!r I 63,800,000 


^24,085,000 


United States . 


;,r9,4oo,ooo 


;^ I 8,600, 000 



Education, 139 

Thus for every pound spent by Great Britain for the 
education of her people, more than four pounds are 
squandered upon the army and navy. The RepubHc re- 
verses this practice and spends nearly two pounds upon 
education for every one spent for war. 

Truly has Longfellow written : 

" Were half the power that fills the world with terror, 
Were half the wealth bestow'd on camps and courts. 
Given to redeem the human mind from error, 
There were no need of arsenals nor forts. 

The warrior's name would be a name abhorred ! 
And every nation that should lift again 
Its hand against a brother, on its forehead 
Would wear forevermore the curse of Cain.'' 

While the New England States fully embraced the 
idea of free and universal public instruction very early 
in their history, the great State of New York adjoining 
them only reached this height after a struggle of many 
long years. It was not until 185 1 that the popular vote 
sanctioned the principle that the State must educate all 
its children. The State now spends eleven millions 
of dollars per annum (more than two millions sterling) 
upon education. A free college in the city of New 
York is filled with the best students from the public 
schools; a free normal college provides higher education 
for female teachers, and in every part of the State 
normal schools produce great numbers of accomplished 
teachers. 



140 Triumphant Democracy. 

The amounts expended upon education by each 
State, per capita of school population, range from 
$18.70 {£1 155.) in Nevada, to 85c. (3^. ^Y^d.) in North 
Carolina, and 8ic. (3^. 4j4d.) in New Mexico. It is an 
interesting fact that the States which spend most pro 
rata on education are not the old settled States of New 
England, but the young, vigorous States of the North- 
west. Thus Iowa spends almost double in proportion 
to its wealth what Massachusetts does ; and Idaho, 
not yet admitted as a State, excels all the States in this 
respect. Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, and Nebraska 
are all far in advance of the New England States. The 
Southern States rank last, though not so far behind as 
might be expected. Indeed, several of them, such as 
Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and South Carolina, 
exceed the average of the New England States. 

The United States have not escaped entirely the 
religious difficulty in their march to universal free 
education, but fortunately opposition to the system 
has been confined to one sect — the Roman Catholic 
— all others having united in giving to it enthusiastic 
support. The dissatisfied Catholics have not been 
strong enough even in the city of New York, where 
they are much more powerful than elsewhere in the 
Union, to disturb the complete exclusion of dogmatical 
teaching which everywhere characterizes the public 
schools of America. A few verses from the Bible are 
generally read without comment in the schools as a 



Education, 141 

public exercise once each day. At this no one takes 
offence, and every one, with the exception of the Ro- 
man CathoHcs, is satisfied, as all feel that the public 
school is not the proper place for religious instruc- 
tion. 

So vitally important to the child is education con- 
sidered throughout America that not even the rigid 
discipline of the Roman Catholic Church is strong 
enough to restrain Catholic parents from sending 
their children to the public schools. Remonstrances 
against this soul-destroying practice were recently made 
simultaneously in all the Catholic churches of Pitts- 
burgh, Penn., and so vehement were the denunciations 
hurled at offenders that the Commercial Gazette had 
a thorough canvass made to determine to what extent 
Catholics were availing themselves of the public 
schools. Statements were asked from the principals 
of fifty-six schools, and replies received from twenty- 
four. The others declined from conscientious scruples 
to inquire into the religious beliefs of the scholars. 
Most significant this of the complete toleration which 
prevails in this country upon the subject of religion, 
and surely not without value as proving to Britain 
how slight is the religious difficulty, if it be a difficulty 
at all, in the path of free secular education. For this 
reason, some of the strongest Catholic districts were 
unreported ; nevertheless, it was clearly proven that 
one-half as many Catholic children attend the public 



142 TriMmphant Democracy. 

schools as the denominational schools, notwithstanding 
the fulminations of the priests and the command of the 
Vicar of Christ, the supreme pontiff, which is quoted 
in the recent attack in Pittsburgh against the godless 
public schools. I was so much surprised at the result 
here stated, that before quoting it I applied to the 
highest authorities for confirmation, among them, to 
my distinguished fellow-countryman, Mr. William 
Wood, who has long been one of the Commissioners 
of Education in the city of New York, and he not 
only affirms that the result at Pittsburgh may be taken 
to represent the average situation throughout the 
country, but that in New York and other large cities 
Catholic children receive their education even in greater 
numbers side by side with Protestant children in the 
State schools. So let the Church continue to issue 
its mandates against free, godless education in the Re- 
public. The Pope, being infallible, must be consistent, 
and this is his nineteenth century bull against the 
comet, and will probably be as efficacious as the older 
one. 

The public schools are supported mainly by direct 
taxation, and no tax is so willingly paid as "the school 
tax." In 1880, eighty-two and a half million dollars 
(sixteen and a half millions sterling) were raised 
for schools — four-fifths by direct tax, the other fifth 
being derived from rents, or sale, or proceeds of school 
lands. 



Education, 143 

Following the public schools, in which every child is 
entitled to receive a common school education free 
of expense, we come to the various institutions for 
higher education, with which the State has nothing to 
do. These are mainly private schools, and depend for 
maintenance upon fees from scholars. Some of them 
are authorized by State legislative enactments to grant 
degrees and diplomas, but as the standards of States 
differ greatly, a school entitled in Tennessee to call it- 
self a university or college might not rank as either 
in Massachusetts. We must, therefore, caution our 
readers not to be misled by figures which show so 
many more colleges and universities in the former than 
in the latter. 

Schools higher than primary public schools in the 
United States number three thousand six hundred and 
fifty, and contain nearly half a million students. Of 
these, three hundred and sixty-four are universities and 
colleges, with fifty-nine thousand five hundred and 
ninety-four students. 

The number of public schools in the country is 
estimated at one hundred and seventy-seven thousand 
one hundred, making in all one hundred and seventy- 
nine thousand eight hundred and eighty-four schools, 
and the army of teachers number two hundred and 
seventy-three thousand, of whom one hundred and 
fifty-four thousand three hundred and seventy-five are 
women. A glorious army this. Let me quote from 



144 Triumphant Democracy, 

the report which the Rev. Mr. Fraser made to the 
British Government some years ago : 

"American teachers are self-possessed, energetic, and fearless, 
admirable disciplinarians, firm without severity, patient without 
weakness ; their manner of teaching lively, and their illustrations 
fertile. No class could ever fall asleep in their hands. They are 
proud of their position and fired with a laudable ambition to main- 
tain the credit of the school ; a little too sensitive of blame, and a 
little too greedy of praise, but a very fine and capable body of 
workers in a noble cause." 

The position of America in regard to reading and 
writing in 1880 is this: out of thirty-six • and three- 
quarter million persons of ten years of age and over, 
nearly five milhon, or thirteen per cent., are unable to 
read, and six million and a quarter, or seventeen per cent., 
are unable to write. In 1870 the percentage was sixteen 
and twenty per cent, respectively so that the march 
against ignorance is still onward. The gain in the 
number able to write is significant. For every thousand 
inhabitants who could not read in 1870 there were but 
eight hundred and fifty-three in 1880, and for every 
thousand who could not write in 1870 there were but 
eight hundred and twenty-six who could not do so in 
1880. In this improvement the colored population 
participated to almost as great an extent as the white, 
which encourages the friends of that race to look 
hopefully to their future. A satisfactory feature is the 



Education, 145 

great reduction of illiteracy in the foreign born ele- 
ment, for of every thousand foreign born who were 
illiterate in 1870 there were but seven hundred and 
fifty-nine in 1880, which testifies to the well-known 
fact that the character of recent immigration has been 
far higher than ever before. Of course the native 
illiterate are found mainly in the Southern States and 
among the colored people. Of colored people more 
than ten years of age in 1880, no less than seventy per 
cent, were unable to write, while of the native white 
born (Southern as well as Northern) there were only 
eight and seven-tenths per cent, in this class. In the 
Southern States, taken as a whole, not more than sixty 
out of every hundred inhabitants over ten years of 
age can write. 

That the condition of the colored population is due 
to circumstances and not to any inherent lack of ca- 
pacity or disposition, we have the best evidence in the 
fact that while seventy-five and six-tenths per cent, of 
this class in the Southern States are illiterate, the 
Northern States of the North Atlantic group present 
an average of illiteracy as low as twenty-three and two- 
tenths per cent., or not one-third as great. 

Throughout the whole North, where the mass of 
the people reside, it may be said that the native born 
American, male and female, can read and write ; for 
the percentage returned as unable to do so does not 
exceed an average of five per cent. Five persons in 

lO 



146 Triumpha7it Democracy. 

every hundred most of whom, no doubt, are mentally 
incapacitated for instruction. 

If we compare the number of white males of 
twenty-one years and over who cannot read or write, 
with those of ten years and over, we see at once how 
education has advanced in recent years. The per 
centages of all the States rises a grade in every 
instance when those educated within the ten year per- 
iod only are considered, those showing between two and 
five per cent, of the latter, show between five and ten 
per cent, when the twenty-one years class is embraced. 
In other words, the children of to-day are more 
generally educated than those of the preceding 
decade. 

The average percentage of white males of twenty- 
one years and over who cannot read and write is seven 
and eight-tenths, and of white females to total white 
females is eleven per cent., only three more women 
than men in every hundred, showing that women 
in the Republic are not far behind. In 1870 the per- 
centages were as follows : male illiterates eighteen and 
twenty-six hundredths per cent., female illterates 
twenty-one and eighty-seven hundredths per cent. 
The decrease of illiteracy in ten years is one of the 
most surprisingly clear marks of the country's prog- 
ress. 

Schools for the superior instruction of women num- 
bered in 1880 two hundred and twenty-seven and con- 



Education. 147 

tained twenty-five thousand seven hundred and eighty 
students. In 1870 there were but one hundred and 
seventy-five such schools and eleven thousand two hun- 
dred and eighty-eight students. These statistics show 
a rate of increase far beyond that of any other branch, 
and prove how rapidly women are being advanced in 
education. 

The average wages per month paid teachers in the 
public schools vary greatly in the different States. 
Nevada pays her female teachers %'j'j (^15 8^. o^.), and 
her male teachers $101.47 (^20 5^-. \od.), which is the 
highest ; Massachusetts $30.59 {£6 2s, 4^.), and $67.54 
(;^I3 10^.2^.); South Carolina $23.89 (;^4 1 53-. 7^.), and 
$25.24 {£s i-y- od.). 

The ratio of average attendance to school popula- 
tion by States in 1880 ranged from sixty-four in Maine 
to nineteen in Louisiana, and the average number of 
school days from fifty-four in North Carolina to one 
hundred and ninety-two in New Jersey. 

As we have already seen, the public schools of 
America cost in 1880 over sixteen millions sterling. 
This is very unequally distributed among the States. 
Virginia City, Nevada, spends most per head upon her 
scholars, namely S34.81 (almost £y). Then comes 
Sacramento, California, with $34 (£6 16s.) per head. 
The city of Boston, Massachusetts, ranks third with 
$33-73 {£^ I5«y-) per head, which is more than three 
times that expended by London. 



148 Triumphant Democracy. 

While the American living is ever mindful of the 
cause of education he does not forget it at death, and 
often bequeaths large sums to his favorite school or 
college. In 1880 such benefactions exceeded five and 
a half millions of dollars (;^ 1,1 00,000). 

Now let us just pause a moment to ask how monar- 
chical and aristocratic institutions affect the minds of 
wealthy people in this respect. Great Britain is, next 
to her child, the richest country in the world. Her 
aristocracy, as a class, is by far the richest in the world. 
There is none comparable to it in the Republic. But 
who ever heard of a nobleman leaving large sums for 
the higher education of his fellows, or indeed for any 
public use whatever ? A great physician in London, 
Erasmus Wilson, dies and leaves a hundred thousand 
pounds, half his entire fortune, to the College of Physi- 
cians and Surgeons, to be used to extend its usefulness. 
Who can point to a member of the aristocracy who has 
risen beyond his own family, which is only another name 
for himself! The vain desire to found or maintain a 
family or to increase its revenues or estate is the ignoble 
ambition of a privileged order. What they give or leave 
as a class, with few exceptions, is " nothing to nobody." 
We can say of the average peer or aristocrat : 

The wretch concentred all in self, 

Living shall forfeit fair renown, 

And doubly cfying shall go down 

To the vile dust from whence he sprung, 

Unwept, unhonored, and unsung. 



Education, 149 

The few illustrious exceptions, all the more notable 
for their rarity, are wholly insufficient to redeem their 
order from the just reproach of grasping from the too 
indulgent State all that can be obtained, and using it 
only for aims which end with self. They can justly 
plead, perhaps, the influence of example in the highest 
quarters where surely better things might have been ex- 
pected — even thrones hoard for self in these days. But 
his is but the legitimate outcome of the monarchical 
and aristocratic idea. No fair fruit is to be expected 
from privilege. 

The Republic has a remarkable list of educational 
institutions bestowed upon it by its millionaires, among 
them Johns-Hopkins University, Cornell University, 
Vanderbilt University, Packer Institute, Vassar College, 
Wellesley College, Smith College, Bryn Mawr College, 
and the Stevens Institute. These have each cost 
several millions of dollars, Johns- Hopkins alone hav- 
ing an endowment of $5,000,000 (iJ" 1,000,000), the gift 
of one man. Only a few days ago the announcement 
was made that Leland Stanford, President of the 
Central Pacific Railway and at present United States 
Senator from California, has transferred property valued 
at seven million dollars to establish a worthy university 
on the Pacific coast. 

The ratio of population to students enrolled by 
classes of institutions in 1880 shows that one out of 
every five attend the public schools, while secondary 



150 Triumphant Democracy, 

education is received by one out of every four hundred 
and fifty-five ; university and college education by one 
out of every eight hundred and forty-two ; commercial 
and business education by one out of everyone thousand 
eight hundred and forty-eight ; a scientific education 
by one out of every four thousand three hundred 
and twenty-one ; a theological education by one out 
of every nine thousand five hundred and sixty- 
eight ; and a legal education by one out of every sixteen 
thousand and one. Such is the record of the educa- 
tional establishments of all kinds in the country as given 
by the census of 1880. 

The moral to be drawn from America by every 
nation is this : " Seek ye first the education of the 
people and all other political blessings will be added 
unto you." The quarrels of party, the game of politics, 
this or that measure of reform, are but surface affairs of 
little moment. The education of the people is the real 
underlying work for earnest men who would best serve 
their country. In this, the most creditable v/ork of all, 
it cannot be denied that the Republic occupies the first 
place. 

It is and ever has been with all Americans as with 
Jefferson : " A system of general instruction which shall 
reach every description of our citizens from the richest to 
the poorest, as it was the earliest so shall it be the latest, 
of all the public concerns in which I shall permit myself 
to take an interest." There speaks the inspired voice of 



Education, 1 5 1 

triumphant Democracy, Vv^hich holds as its first duty the 
universal education of the people. Of all its boasts, of 
all its triumphs, this is at once its proudest and its best. 
We say to the old Monarchies of the world : Behold 
Democracy produces as its natural fruit an educated 
people. 



CHAPTER VII. 

RELIGION. 

" The religion of a people, prevailing at any time or place, is the 
highest expression of which that people is then and there capable." 

The relation of the Church to the State is one of 
the problems which the Republic may he said to have 
solved. It is decided that it has no relation whatever. 

The State has as much relation to religion as to medi- 
cine, and no more ; and it might as well establish homoe- 
opathy as its medical system, as episcopacy as its reli- 
gion. It might as well undertake the health of the 
body as of the soul — indeed, far better, since it is a 
much less complex task. 

In the Republic the regulation of religious beliefs by 
the State would be regarded as absurd as the regula- 
tion of dress. It is not even admitted that the State 
has a right to patronize one form of religion — much less 
one sect — to the prejudice of other forms. Buddhism, 
Confucianism, or the crudest Fetichism, stand in exactly 
the same relation to the State as any of the sects which 
derive their creeds from the teachings of Christ. No form 
of worship, no religious creed is selected by the State 
for special favor. The '* heathen Chinee " in New York 
may worship his ancestors with a restful consciousness 



Religion. 153 

that the black-coated Christian, passing with gold- 
edged book to church, is not more favored by the 
State. 

And how does this system of perfect religious 
equality work ? Perfectly, as to all sects in general; 
much better than the advocates of the State Church 
system in the mother-land could believe for the 
AngHcan Church in particular, which is vigorous to a 
degree which might well be envied by the parent 
stem. So far from religion being neglected by the 
people, the number of religious edifices in proportion to 
population is far greater in America than in Britain, 
and the congregations frequenting them are quite as 
large. In England there are thirty-five thousand 
churches, or one hundred and forty-four to each one 
hundred thousand inhabitants ; in the United States 
there are ninety-two thousand churches, or one hun- 
dred and eighty-one to each one hundred thousand 
inhabitants. Of the latter, more than eighty thousand 
are owned by Protestants. 

The steps leading to this remarkable result display 
the same general character as every other kind of ad- 
vancement in America : progress by leaps and bounds. 
At the beginning of the century, students of Yale 
and Harvard were accustomed to call themselves by 
the names of French and German infidels ; and only a 
small proportion of the students in colleges were church 
members. All this has been changed. From 1870 to 



154 Trhimphant Democracy. 

1880, Harvard, the most advanced of all universities, 
graduated more than fourteen hundred young men, 
only two of whom publicly registered themselves as 
*' sceptics." In 1800, when the population of the United 
States was about five millions, the number of communi- 
cants in the various churches was three hundred and 
sixty-four thousand, an average of one to fifteen of the 
population. In 1880, with a population of fifty millions 
the number of Protestant communicants was more than 
ten millions, an average of one in five. If the mem- 
bers of the Roman Catholic Church be included, the 
proportion will be largely increased. 

The multiplication of handsome religious edifices is 
equally remarkable. Many American churches are noted 
for their beauty. All the large cities have examples of 
church architecture which would not discredit towns 
having a history as old as that of Coventry ; and in rural 
districts the church spire rises above the cottages and 
trees as frequently as they tower over the hamlets 
in the old country. One of the grandest churches of mod- 
ern times is undoubtedly the Roman Catholic Cathedral 
of Fifth Avenue, New York, a massive Gothic structure 
of white marble ; and in the same avenue are quite half 
a dozen other churches of great beauty and architect- 
tiral merit. 

It is estimated that thirty millions, or nearly three- 
fifths of the entire population of the country, are within 
the pale of the Christian Church. Twenty-four millions 



Religion. 155 

of these are Protestants, of whom the Methodist and 
Baptist claim the largest proportion ; next in numerical 
order come the Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, Luther- 
an, Christian (Disciples of Christ), Congregational, Epis- 
copal, United Brethren, and a host of sects which it 
would tire one to enumerate. The buildings and other 
property belonging to these various bodies are estimated 
to be worth in the aggregate upwards of $350,000,000 
(;f 70,000,000). 

The clergy in the United States, upwards of seventy- 
seven thousand in number, are maintained solely by 
the worshippers. The government, of course, gives 
nothing to any. There is no " dissent," because no 
sect is preferred. 

The leading part which religion played in the settle- 
ment of this continent had an effect which continues to 
mark the American of to-day. He is a church-going 
person and a liberal contributor to the cause of the 
Church, though he has outgrown the strict and narrow 
creeds of early days, and is religious, not theological. 

As late as 1705 aristocratic Virginia decreed three 
years' imprisonment, and many political disabilities 
upon any one v/ho should a second time assert disbelief 
in the Trinity and the Scriptures ; but the govern- 
ment of New Amsterdam was rather more advanced, 
for in 1664 it decreed that no person who professed 
Christianity should be molested, fined, or imprisoned 
for difference of religious opinions. The revolutionary 



156 Triumphant Democracy, 

struggle quickened the march towards complete religious 
toleration. The fear that England would establish the 
Episcopal Church in America, if the colonics should be 
subdued, drew together all the other sects and all favor- 
able to religious equality, and therefore opposed to the 
claims of the English Church. "This," says John Adams 
"contributed as much as any other cause to arouse the 
attention, not only of the inquiring mind, but of the 
common people, and urge them to close thinking on the 
constitutional authority of Parliament over the colonies." 
And the intensity of colonial opposition to the State 
Church is shown by the special instructions of the 
Assembly of Massachusetts to its agent in London, in 
1768: "The establishment of a Protestant episcopate 
in America is very zealously contended for (by a party 
in the British Parliament) ; and it is very alarming to a 
people whose fathers, from the hardships they suffered 
under such an establishment, were obliged to fly their 
native country into a wilderness in order peaceably to 
enjoy their privileges — civil and religious. We hope in 
God that such an establishment will never take place 
in America ; and we desire you would strenuously op- 
pose it ! " In addition, therefore, to the dissatisfaction 
which the State Church produces at home, it is justly 
to be charged with being one of the chief causes which 
led to the loss of the colonies abroad. 

When the colonies triumphed and a Constitution 
had to be made for their government as a nation, there 



Religion, 157 

was but one course possible. Since no sect could be 
given a preference, and especially not the Episcopal sect, 
which had been the least loyal of all to the cause of In- 
dependence, it followed that perfect equality must be 
established. The State must protect all religions 
alike ; and accordingly the Constitution provides that 
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment 
of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. 
Such is the charter under which Jew and Gentile, 
Christian, Mahometan and Hindoo stand equal and 
secure in their rights. The various States soon fol- 
lowed the spirit of this law, Virginia taking the lead. 
Provision for the support of the clergy was erased 
from their Constitutions, and yet the variety of healthy 
and vigorous religious life in the United States to-day 
is greater than anywhere else in the world. So much 
for a free Church in a free State. 

We are unable to make comparisons between the 
amounts contributed each year for religious purposes 
fifty years ago and those of to-day because the census 
returns are silent upon this point. At the time of the 
Revolution (1776) there were one thousand four hun- 
dred and sixty-one ministers and one thousand nine 
hundred and fifty-one churches, which gave one min- 
ister for every two thousand and fifty-three souls and 
a church for every one thousand five hundred and thirty- 
eight. In 1880 there was a minister for every six hun- 
dred and sixty and a church for every five hundred and 



158 



Triumphant Democracy, 



fifty-three. This shows that although the country has 
increased in population at a pace unknown before in 
the history of mankind, its churches and ministers have 
not only kept abreast of this movement but have 
actually exceeded it. Wherever the American settles 
he begins at once the erection of his school house and 
his church. 

The principal sects, according to the census of 1880, 
number as follows : 



Methodist. 


3,286,158 


Baptist .... 


2,430,095 


Presbyterian 


885,468 


Lutheran .... 


569.389 


Discipl^9 of Christ . 


556,941 


Congregational 


384,800 


Episcopal .... 


336,669 



The Roman Catholic Church claimed in 1883 to have 
6,832,954 adherents of that faith in the United States, 
but church membership is not reported. This estimate 
includes all the members of those famihes which are in 
any way connected with it ; the adult membership may 
therefore be estimated at two-fifths of the above — nearly 
two and three-quarter millions. 

The American reader knows that in Britain the 
State continues to establish and endow one among the 
numerous Protestant sects which it calls The Church of 
England and another called The Church of Scotland; 
with delightful impartiality the State indorses the 



Religion, 159 

Episcopal form as The Church, i. e. the true, divine sys- 
tem, south of the Tweed, and is equally assured that 
north of that small river the aristocratic apostolic suc- 
cession becomes inoperative and the democratic Pres- 
byterian idea constitutes The Church, Parliament is 
supreme over both, and her Majesty is the defender not 
only of the faith, but of both faiths. In England she is 
a devout Episcopalian, in Scotland a Presbyterian ; but 
as all Scotland is of the latter faith, and the sects repre- 
sent only the minor differences which inevitably crop 
up among the polemical Scots in any institution, 
secular or religious, the State Church, although partak- 
ing of the nature of privilege, and hence insulting to 
the other sects as implying their inferiority, is not, m 
Scotland, to the same degree the irritating and almost 
intolerable grievance which it is in England. A Pres- 
byterian family in Scotland may not belong to the 
Established Church and yet retain its social position. 
In England it would be almost, if not quite impossible, 
for the *' Church people " constitute society. Episcopacy 
is the only fashionable form of religion — the only form 
that is '^ good form." It is the rule, and exceptions 
to it are not numerous, for Episcopal clergymen in 
the country districts to decline to meet the ministers 
of other denominations who are not clergy at all in 
the estimation of these the only true successors of the 
Apostles. Instead of being a bond of peace among 
people in England, religion is made by a State-preferred 



i6o Triumphant Democracy, 

sect a bone of contention, and produces more discord 
than the Episcopal Church heals. These bitter quarrels 
do not even end at the grave ; most unseemly and discred- 
itable disputes occur even there over the right or non- 
right of the members of other churches to be buried 
among their own people in the only graveyard of the 
district. One cannot but marvel that a people so given 
to the observance of the outward proprieties of life 
should permit scenes which I am sure have not their 
like in even the most ignorant lands. A recent Burials 
Act of Parliament does something to remedy the evil 
but the matter is still far from being upon a proper 
footing. 

The sale of livings is another scandal which Ameri- 
cans will hear of with perhaps equal surprise. There 
frequently goes with a land purchase the right of ap- 
pointing the clergyman of a district, and as the emolu- 
ments may be great, this post has a marketable value. 
It ranks just as so many additional acres in appraising 
the estate, and we constantly see advertisements offer- 
ing for sale a clergyman's position to such and such a 
"living." It matters not what the character or attain- 
ments of the purchaser may be if in orders ; if he has 
the cash and buys his appointment then he is the law' 
ful minister of the unfortunate congregation and it is 
powerless. 

This system results in another evil. The rich 
purchaser may not have the slightest idea of pursuing 



Religion, i6i 

his holy calling. He buys a revenue of say one thousand 
pounds per year, and he hires a poor curate for one 
hundred and fifty pounds, and the difference is his profit 
upon the investment. One step further, if my American 
reader is in a state to believe anything more monstrous, 
in the path of this Established Church. The right to 
appoint a minister at the death of a present incumbent 
is often sold by public sale. A poor, faithful clergyman 
is old and must soon die. How much bid for his place, 
gentlemen? Going, going, gone ! 

This is church life in England. I often vv^onder how 
one of our bishops of the Episcopal Church can 
cordially take by the hand his fellow-bishops of Eng- 
land, the receivers of the disreputable fruits of this sys- 
tem. Archdeacon Farrar has just been good enough to 
tell us he does not wish it disturbed. Of course not, 
but he is not in a position to judge impartially since he 
cannot be held to have quite clean hands himself. 

The evils of the State Church flow from its parent, 
the Monarchy, of which it is the legitimate offspring. 
Its archbishops and bishops residing in palaces and 
rolling in wealth are the religious aristocracy ; the 
thousands of poor curates who drag out existence upon 
pittances represent the masses. The revenues of the 
State Church exceed five million pounds sterling. The 
Church owns all kinds of property and is squeamish 
about none. An editorial in the London Times re- 
cently called attention to the charge that the Archbishop 



1 62 Triumphant Democracy, 

of Canterbury, walking between certain of his residences 
or churches in London, would pass a hundred gin palaces 
erected upon land owned by the Church, upon which 
the rents were raised from time to time as the vile trade 
flourished ; but Church people who will sell the right to 
cure the souls of men naturally do not hesitate to sell 
the right to destroy their bodies, both strictly for cash. 
The present Church of England, of the Monarchy, is 
in the respects I have noted unworthy of fellowship 
with its purer offspring of the Republic. But my 
readers will not have failed to observe that all the evils 
which cling to it flow from its degrading connection 
with the State, as our own Episcopal Church abun- 
dantly proves that they are not inherent in the system. 
When the political aspect of the matter be settled as it 
is settled here, the branch of the Episcopal Church in 
Britain will become as pure as the other. 

After a trial of free and independent existence 
nothing is more certain than that a proposition from 
the government to give to the Protestant Episcopal 
Church of America the position in the State at present 
occupied by the Episcopal Church in England would 
be overwhelmingly rejected by that body as injurious 
to the life and usefulness of the organization, and de- 
rogatory to the true position of religion. If the 
Church of England enjoyed one year's freedom from 
State control, in like manner, it could never be induced 
to return to its present dependence upon the State. 



Religion. 163 

As the British landlords stand to-day, who once 
stood bewailing the coming ruin from the repeal of the 
Corn Laws, as the American slave-holders stand, who 
once stood predicting a saturnalia of bloodshed in the 
South when the slaves were freed, — so will the English 
churchman stand who foresees the State Church ruined 
by separation from the State. Short-sighted man ! 
From the day the Church of England is free and inde- 
pendent of the State its power and influence will 
begin to grow with redoubled strength, and all the 
other sects will be stirred to increased effort. Indeed, 
an independent Church of England, which no longer 
implies the inferiority of others, may prove itself the 
power which is finally to absorb within its folds all 
the sects, and restore to Great Britain the unity of re- 
ligious form unfortunately lost when the political in- 
vaded the religious domain. The breadth of view, the 
large tolerance, the fading importance attached to mere 
dogmas of man's own creation, which characterize the 
present Church, appear admirably suited for a founda- 
tion upon which, after the scandals resulting from State 
control are eliminated, can be built a Church which 
will draw all religious people to its fold and become 
in reality as in name the Church of England. 

We do not yet see in the Republic a tendency to 
the obliteration of sects. We do see, however, that the 
preliminary stage toward this has been developed. 
The sects are mingling more and more one with another 



164 Triumphant Democracy, 

in many great works. Co-operation embracing all the 
sects is noticeable. The Jewish rabbi, the Catholic priest 
and the Episcopal minister, and those of all the other 
denominations are constantly seen together occupying 
the same platform and advocating the same measures. 
When this stage of progress toward unity is fully 
developed the next step is not far distant. 

Without Church-rate or tithe, without State endow- 
ment or State supervision, religion in America has spon- 
taneously acquired a strength which no political support 
could have given. It is a living force entering into the 
lives of the people and drawing them closer together in 
unity of feeling, and working silently and without sign of 
the friction which in the mother country results from a 
union with the State, which, as we have seen, tends 
strongly to keep the people divided one from another. 
The power of the Church in America must not be 
sought, as Burke said of an ideal aristocracy, *' in rotten 
parchments, under dripping and perishing walls, but in 
full vigor, and acting with vital energy and power, in 
the character of the leading men and natural interests 
of the country. If judged by the church accommoda- 
tion provided and the sums spent upon Church organi- 
zations. Democracy can safely claim that «f all the divi- 
sions of the Englisli-speaking people, it has produced 
the most religious community yet known. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PAUPERISM AND CRIME. 

'* The poor ye have always with you and the criminal classes as well, but 
the poor can be made few and the criminals less vicious by proper treat- 
ment upon the part of the State. No test of the place a State occu- 
pies in civilization is surer than the lightness of its punishments and the 
care taken of its poor. A pitying spirit toward these unfortunate classes 
and not that represented by the grim authority of the law, is that which 
in the end lessens crime and pauperism, and best befits an educated com- 
munity ; for the end of all punishment and that alone which justifies it is 
not the vindication of the outraged lav/ but the desired amendment of 
the offender." — Thoughts of the Sages. 

In the old books, periodicals, and newspapers which 
have been searched for facts throwing light upon the 
condition of America half a century ago, frequent 
reference has been found to the comparative freedom 
of America from beggars and paupers. A writer in De 
Bow's Commercial Magazine at this period said : 

" Throughout the greater part of Virginia and Ken- 
tucky pauperism is almost unknown. I passed some 
time ago the poorhouse of Campbell County, Kentucky, 
. . . and there was not a solitary inmate. And I have 
known a populous county in Virginia to have but one.'* 
And during a prolonged tour through the States by 
Captain Alexander, of the British Army, in 1832, " only 
one beggar was seen." 

But with many such indications of the absence of 



1 66 Triumphant Democracy, 

poverty among Americans fifty years ago are found 
complaints that large numbers of European paupers 
were brought in. Thus we read in the New England 
Magaziiie for 1833 ^^^^ " ^ memorial was presented to 
the General Assembly by the Mayor and City Council 
of Baltimore calling their attention to the evils arising 
from the influx of foreign paupers. The memorial 
states that the number of emigrants who arrived at the 
port of Baltimore in 1831 was four thousand three hun- 
dred and eighty-one, and in 1832, seven thousand nine 
hundred and forty-six ; a large proportion of whom 
were destitute of the means of subsistence. Also that 
of one thousand one hundred and sixty persons ad- 
mitted to the almshouse in that city in 1831, four hun- 
dred and eighty-seven were foreigners ; and that of this 
number two hundred and eighty-one had been in the 
country less than six months prior to their admission, 
and one hundred and twenty-one less than one week." 

The Philadelphia National Gazette stated in 1834 
that " an active and intelligent guardian of the poor in 
that city has declared, that the support of our own poor 
would be an insignificant charge, and that more than 
three-fourths of the paupers in the almshouse are ex- 
ported from Europe. Sometimes a whole family will 
come almost directly from the ship to the almshouse." 

The New York Advertiser relates "that, in the 
course of the present season (1834) an Austrian armed 
ship has been despatched from that country to this, 



Pazcpe^Hsm and Crime, 167 

with a large number of persons on board, who were of 
a character which the Austrian Government did not in- 
cHne to suffer to remain within their own territories, 
and therefore sent them out, in the very imposing man- 
ner just mentioned, and landed them in the city of New 
York." 

Twenty years later there was the same cause of com- 
plaint. It is related in Booth's *' History of New 
York " that " during the the winter of 1855 there was 
much suffering among the poor of New York, who, un- 
able to find work, paraded the streets with banners and 
mottoes appealing for aid. Soup kitchens were opened 
in every part of the city, where the hungry were fed 
from day to day. In the Seventh Ward alone, in one day 
in January, nine thousand persons were fed by public 
charity ; not one of whom it may be remarked in pass- 
ing was an American." 

And now again there is an outcry against the im- 
portation of paupers, which even yet has not ceased. 

But poverty was not the only charge brought against 
foreigners; they formed a large proportion of the crim- 
inal class. The criminal statistics of early censuses are 
so incomplete as to be untrustworthy ; but Mulhall's 
statement of present facts also represents the case in 
the past. He says : *' It is remarkable that although 
foreigners compose but one-seventh of the population, 
they supply fourteen thousand offenders, or thirty per 
cent, of the total." 



168 



Triumphant Democracy, 



The proportion of paupers to total population is less 
in the United States than in any other country. Indeed, 
the difference is so great as to be almost incredible. 
Britain has a pauper army of more than a million, or one 
pauper to every thirty-four persons. America with her 
greater population has only a quarter of a million, or 
one pauper in every two hundred of her inhabitants. 
This statement is fairly representative of the difference 
between the Republic and other European nations; 
though in one or two cases the difference in favor of the 
Republic is even greater, as will be seen by the follow- 
ing : 



No. OF Persons 


Ratio 


TO 




Relieved. 


Population. 


United Kingdom, 


. 1,037,000 


33 per 


1000. 


Italy, .... 


1,365,000 


48 - 




Prussia, .... 


1,310,000 


50 " 




Austria, .... 


1,220,000 


35 " 




France, . . . " . 


1,151 ,000 


32 " 




Low Countries, . 


1,010,000 


105 " 




Spain and Portugal, . 


596,000 


30 " 




Scandinavia, 


301,000 


38 " 




Switzerland, 


140,000 


54 " 
41 " 






8,130,000 




United States, 


225,000 


5 " 





Thus it appears that for every pauper in the United 
States, there are twenty-one paupers in Holland and 
Belgium, and six in the United Kingdom. 



Pauperism and Crime, 169 

It should be further remarked that of the registered 
paupers maintained at pubhc expense in America more 
than one-third are foreigners. The native paupers con- 
stitute ten-hundredths per cent, of the native popula- 
tion ; the foreign paupers thirty-four hundredths per 
cent, of the foreign-born element, three times more 
than their due proportion. 

It is gratifying to note that the colored race shows 
the smallest proportion of pauperism, further dis- 
crediting the wild predictions of their idleness and 
dissipation so common before emancipation. Reduced 
to percentages of the whole total of each element, the 
white paupers are fourteen-hundredths and the colored 
nine-hundredths. 

The American poor-law system is very different 
from that which in England has done so much to foster 
the idle and improvident at the expense of the indus- 
trious and prudent. In many cities bureaus of charity 
connect the official with the private distribution of 
alms, and these often procure work for the indigent 
instead of giving them money. The recipients of re- 
lief in America have not been taught to look always to 
the State for pecuniary help ; and the union of public 
and private charity is useful in maintaining this desir- 
able state of mind amongst the poor. Where paupers 
regard charity as a right, they are apt to demand it in 
cases where they would hesitate to ask for favors. 
The cost of the system compared to that of Great 



170 Triumplia7it Democracy, 

Britain, where fifty million dollars is annually spent on 
paupers, further commends it. The Republic spends 
on its poor not a third as much as England. 

The causes of the comparative freedom of America 
from pauperism are not far to seek. In a new country 
no one who is willing to work need suffer from poverty ; 
and there is no class in America content to remain idle. 
Then the defective classes bear a smaller proportion to 
the population than is found in old countries where 
the conditions of life are harder, and lack of proper 
food and clothing and shelter results in imperfect de- 
velopment. The small proportion of deaf, dumb, and 
blind persons in the United States is also in a measure 
due to the healthful nature of the foreign element ; de- 
fective persons remain at home in Europe, and only 
the sound and vigorous emigrate. The potency of 
this factor is shown by the circumstance that while in 
the United States there is only one blind person in 
two thousand seven hundred and twenty inhabitants, 
and one deaf and dumb among two thousand and 
ninety-four, in Ireland the proportion is one blind in 
eight hundred and ninety-four, and one deaf and dumb 
in thirteen hundred and forty. Private charity does 
much to remove what trace of poverty and distress 
there is in America. Orphanages, industrial schools, 
blind asylums, institutions for the deaf and dumb, and 
other charities are very numerous and are increasing in 
number. The census returns show that there are 



Pauperism and Crime. lyi 

about as many inmates in these as in the pubHc institu- 
tions. Charitable institutions classed as miscellaneous 
number four hundred and thirty. Besides these there 
are fifty-six institutions for deaf and dumb persons, 
thirty institutions for the blind, and thirteen schools 
for feeble-minded children. 

In the treatment of these three most important 
classes Democracy shows to much advantage. The re- 
ports of foreign writers seem to be unanimous in the 
opinion that in no other country is so much care 
and attention bestowed upon them as in America. 
Many of the prevailing improved modes of teaching 
have been first introduced in the American institu- 
tions. 

Thus America exhibits not only the least poverty, 
but also the best system of alleviating it. More than 
half the distressed within her borders are relieved by 
voluntary charity ; and this is ever encroaching on the 
fields of State charity. It is a decided gain to the world 
when compulsory charity, such as annually forces ten 
millions sterling from the pockets of the British tax- 
payer, is replaced by the charity which blesses equally 
him who gives and him who takes ; and this is a change 
which is rapidly taking place in America. It may 
safely be predicted that with the growing self-de- 
pendence which republican institutions foster, State 
charities will be substantially restricted to such as have 
reached beggary through gross misconduct. 



172 Triumphant Democracy, 

The close relation which exists between poverty and 
crime has received verification and repeated emphasis 
since Quetelet first published the results of his inquiries. 
In England it has been repeatedly shown that hard 
times bring increase of crime ; and Dr. Mayr has shown 
that in Germany a rise in the price of flour is attended 
by an increase of robberies. Cheap food, on the other 
hand, is accompanied by diminution of crime. A 
scientific principle is thus added to sentiment in the 
song of '' The English Roast Beef" — 

"The man that's well fed, sirs, 
Can never do ill.'' 

Accordingly we find that offences against property are 
fewer proportionately in the United States than in 
European countries. 

The influence of free and universal education, 
together with that of political institutions which at 
every point inculcate self-respect and stimulate am- 
bition, must be accorded much weight in keeping the 
Republic the freest of all civilized nations from pauper- 
ism and crime. 

Humanitarian progress in the treatment of criminals 
in America is wholly the work of the last half century. 
The present generation will scarcely credit the inhuman 
treatment which the delinquent classes received during 
the preceding generation. Here are a few examples, 
taken from trustworthy sources, which give us the sad 
picture of the past : 



Pauperism and Crime. 173 

" During more than fifty years (from 1773 to 1827) the enlightened 
State of Connecticut had an underground prison in an old mining- 
pit in the hills near Simsbury, which surpassed in horrors all that 
is known of European or American prisons. 

"The passage to the ' Newgate Prison,' as it was called, was 
down a shaft by means of a ladder to some caverns in the sides of 
the hill. Here rooms were built of boards for the convicts, and 
heaps of straw formed their beds. The horrid gloom of these 
dungeons can be realized only by those who pass along its soli- 
tary windings. The impenetrable vastness supporting the awful 
mass above, impending as if to crush one to atoms ; the drip- 
ping waters trickling like tears from its sides ; the unearthly 
echoes — all conspire to strike the beholders aghast with amazement 
and horror. 

" Here from thirty to one hundred prisoners were crowded to- 
gether at jiight, their feet fastened to bars of iron, and chains about 
their necks attached to the beams above. The caves reeked with 
filth, occasioning incessant contagious fevers. The prison was the 
scene of constant outbreaks, and the most cruel and degrading 
punishments failed to reform the convicts. ' The system,' says 
the writer quoted above, ' was very well suited to make men into 
devils.' The prisoners educated one another in crime. The mid- 
night revels were often like the howling in a pandemonium of 
tigers, banishing sleep and forbidding rest ! 

" At Northampton, Massachusetts, a dungeon is described, only 
four feet high, without window or chimney, the only ventilation 
being through the privy-vault and two orifices in the wall. In 
"Worcester, a similar cell was only three feet high and eleven feet 
square, without window or orifice, the air entering through the 
vault and through the cracks in the door. This was connected 
with a similar room for lunatics. At Concord was a cell of like 
construction ; and in Schenectady, New York, it is related that 



174 Tr'uunphayit Democracy. 

three men confined a fevv hours in such a dungeon were found 
lifeless, though afterwards they were revived. 

" Mr, Edward Livingstone, the great penal reformer of this coun- 
trj*, mentions, in 1S22, that from fifteen hundred to two thousand per- 
sons of both sexes were committed to prison in each year in New 
York city, all being presumed to be innocent, and the large pro- 
IX)rtion really so, and were forced into association wHth old crim- 
inals, eating, drinking and sleeping w'ith them ; then after having 
learned the lesson of crime they were turned out to practice it." 

These were the good old times we often hear of 
but never read about. The barbarity of the punish- 
ments which characterized the period immediately suc- 
ceeding the Revolution had been much mitigated 
before 1830, and the substitution of milder punish- 
ments has since gone on with the amelioration of the 
criminal's life in prison. Surer convictions and lighter 
sentences mark the progress of penal reform. In a 
centur}- or two, the most potent deterrent to crime 
will probably be the simple notice in the press that 
" in the City Court yesterday the conduct of so-and-so 
was disapproved by the jury." A thoroughbred needs 
neither whip nor spur. An educated man born of 
educated parents is the human thoroughbred. 

The progress made in the treatment of youthful 
criminals is also to be credited to the half century^ we 
are considering. Before 1830 little or nothing had been 
done to effect a distinction or even a separation in jail 
between children and adult criminals. The result of 
unrestricted intercourse between them may be imag- 



Pauperism and Crzme. 175 

ined. The boy guilty of a first offence v/as lost ; 
the veteran in crime became his hero, and he only 
longed for discharge that he might emulate his exploits. 
Young girls in like manner were confined with the most 
hardened women, with similar results. Strange as it may 
seem to my readers of to-day, it was not till 1824 that 
the first reformatory, the New York House of Refuge, 
was built. Its influence for good was felt at once; and 
others were soon established, and in 1874, just fifty 
years after the initiation of the movement, there were 
thirty-four reformatories in the country, valued at 
nearly eight million dollars. The average number 
of inmates was eight thousand nine hundred and 
twenty-four ; while up to that date no fewer than 
ninety-one thousand four hundred and two boys and 
girls had been received, and nearly seventy thousand 
were reported as permanently reformed — saved ! 

" These useful institutions are an immense advance on the pris- 
ons which preceded them. The youth is no longer confined with 
the mature criminal ; the sexes also are separated ; and at night, 
as a general practice, there is but one child in each cell, or, if in a 
large dormitory, the children are carefully watched to prevent evil 
communications. They are all taught useful trades, and have regu- 
lar day instructions in schools besides religious teaching on Sun- 
day. After their term of sentence has expired, or previously if their 
good conduct permit, they are indentured with worthy and re- 
spected farmers and mechanics." 

Numerous societies exist in the large cities for the 
care of destitute children, the best known being the 



176 Truc7nphant Democracy, 

Children's Aid Society of New York, the growth and 
success of which have been remarkable. It began its 
labors in 1853 and has provided more than thirty thou- 
sand homeless children with homes and work in the 
country. Its lodging houses shelter an average of six 
hundred per night. Its industrial and night schools ed- 
ucate and partly feed and clothe more than ten thousand 
children per year. Its great aim is to save the vagrant, 
homeless, and semi-criminal children of the city by draw- 
ing them to places of shelter and instruction and finally 
transferring them to selected homes in the country, 
there being almost an unlimited demand for children's 
labor in this country. The result of these efforts is 
startling. The commitments for vagrancy in New York 
city fell from two thousand one hundred and sixty-©ne 
in 1861 to nine hundred and fourteen in 1871, and of 
young girls for petty stealing from one thousand one 
hundred and thirty-three in i860 to five hundred and 
seventy-two in 1871, the population having increased in 
the interval seventeen per cent. Here is the true point 
at which to grapple with the difficulty, right in the be- 
ginning, before the innocent child learns the ways of its 
elder associates. 

America has not been backward in applying modern 
ideas in the treatment of prisoners. Her penitentiaries 
now compare favorably with those of other nations, 
while no nation probably has gone so far in substituting 
mild for severe punishments. Repugnance to the death 



Patiperzs77t and Crime. 177 

penalty is so strong that it has been abolished in several 
of the States. The large State prisons keep their pris- 
oners steadily at work together during the day, and 
separate them in the cells at night. In some cases the 
labor is sold to contractors who pay so much per man, 
but it is said that this sysem does not work well, as it 
brings outside influence into contact with the prisoners. 
It is more desirable that State officials should superin- 
tend and dispose of the work. Many of the prisons are 
self-supporting or nearly so, while that of Ohio yields an 
annual profit to the State. None of the prisons rank 
higher than that of this State at Columbus. In it the 
convict may by good behavior diminish his sentence 
five days a month, and may receive an allowance not ex- 
ceeding one-tenth of his earnings. At the end of his 
term, if he has gained the full commutation, he is re- 
stored to his rights of citizenship. No cruel or degrading 
punishments are employed, and no distinctive prison 
clothing is worn. The prison library is much used. 
Sunday school and prayer meeting are constantly at- 
tended, and there are two hundred well conducted mem- 
bers of the prison church. In the Massachusetts State 
prison the convicts established among themselves a 
society for mutual debate and improvement. Teachers 
and chaplains are appointed for prisons, libraries pro- 
vided, and in short these institutions are conducted 
upon the idea that it is not so important to punish the 

offender for what he has done as to improve him, so 
12 



178 Triumphant Democracy, 

that he will not be likely to break the laws again. 
In no department of human effort has a greater 
change been made for the better in America than in the 
treatment of the vagrant and criminal classes. How to 
punish the ignorant and misguided offender is not so 
eagerly discussed as how to prevent his growing up in 
ignorance and sin, and thus becoming an offender ; nor 
does the question how to punish the criminal rank with 
the much more important query how he can be re- 
formed. This is the first consideration, and he is sur- 
rounded with libraries, teachers, chaplains, to save him 
as much as possible from vile associates during his 
prison life, and save him if possible from himself. 

In Du Boys' " History of Criminal Law " we are 
shocked to read that in the fourteenth century three 
swine were tried before a legal court and sentenced to 
death for murdering a shepherd. " The whole herd was 
also condemned as accomplices, and that part of the 
sentence was only remitted on appealing to the Duke of 
Burgundy, whose pardon was granted with all the forms 
of Chancery." And Berriat Saint-Prix enumerates more 
than eighty condemnations to death or excommunica- 
tions pronounced from 11 20 to 1741 against every kind 
of animal from the ass to the grasshopper. To us such 
grotesque proceedings in the name of Justice are in- 
comprehensible. The next generation, or the next 
beyond, will probably read with horror of our inflict- 
ing the death punishment upon human beings. Two 



Pauperism and Crime, 179 

thousand years ago Confucius was asked by the king 
whether the unprincipled should not be killed for the 
sake of the principled. The sage replied by asking an- 
other question : " Sir, in carrying on your government 
why should you kill at all ? " Surely it is time for us to 
ask that question now. It is not the least sign of the 
Republic's position among nations that in many States 
the death penalty is already a thing of the past. 

The civilization of a people may be tested by the 
character of their punishments. The milder these are 
the more civilized the nation, as that home is to be 
rated highest in all the land in which the mildest sys- 
tem of parental government prevails, in which reproof 
takes its gentlest forms, and yet suffices. Judged by 
this standard the Democracy stands the test well 



CHAPTER IX. 
AGRICULTURE. 

And they shall beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into 
pruning-hooks : nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall 
they learn war any more. — ISAIAH. 

Ceres is the prime divinity of the RepubHc. To 
her the American makes his most profound obeisance. 
Upon him her sweetest smiles are lavished in return. 

In 1880 the principal nations stand thus in the value 
of their agricultural and pastoral products. At the 
head is the Republic, with $3,020,000,000 {£604,- 
000,000), having marched in little more than a cen- 
tury from the foot to the head of the column. Russia, 
with her immense area and hundred millions of popula- 
tion, follows at a respectful distance with $2,545,000,- 
000 (;^ 5 09,000,000). Imperial Germany with her $2,- 
280,000,000 (;^45 6,000,000) is so closely followed by 
La Belle France as to render the struggle for pre- 
cedence quite interesting, for France shows $2,220,- 
000,000 (ii"444,ooo,ooo), $225,000,000 being the pro- 
duction of the juicy grape. Next comes Austria, with 
three hundred and twenty-two millions as the pro- 
duct of her extensive cornlands and Hungarian plains. 
And then, sixth in the row, comes the beautiful Isle, of 



Agriculture. 1 8 1 

the Sea, small but mighty, with $1,280,000,000 {^£2^6,- 
000,000) — a prodigious sum for her small area. Italy, 
Spain, Australia, and Canada come last on the list, 
with a united product little more than half that of 
the Great Republic. What will the next decade show? 
Perhaps no change in the order in which the nations 
stand, but it is certain that further and further from her 
second, and more removed from any, will stand the 
Republic — God bless her ! 

No victory of peace was so long deferred, or so com- 
plete when it came, as the conquest of the soil. A hun- 
dred years ago agriculture was in little better condition 
all over the world than it was a thousand years before. 
Indeed it has been boldly asserted that the Greeks, 
Romans, Egyptians, and Assyrians cultivated their soil 
better than any portion of the earth was tilled even 
a century ago. The alternation of crops was almost 
unknown ; and fields exhausted by frequent repetition 
of the same crop were allowed to lie fallow, as in the 
time of Moses. Drainage, where practiced, was of the 
rudest kind ; and in the sodden ground crops were thin 
and poor in quality, and unhealthy as food. Farming im- 
plements were of the most primitive type. The plough 
generally used was little better than that of Virgil's 
time, and only scratched the ground. The sower, with 
basket suspended by a cord round the neck, walked 
over the field throwing handfuls of grain on each side, 
as described in the parable, and as shov/n even now by 



x82 Triumphant Democracy, 

pictures in rural almanacs. The reaping-hook, almost 
as old as the hills on which waved the ripened corn, was 
the only means of cutting it, while only the " thresher's 
weary flingin'-tree " of Burns enabled the farmer to 
separate the grain from the straw. 

In breeding and rearing cattle progress had been 
equally insignificant. The quality of food given to 
cattle was so bad that attention to breeding alone 
availed little in improving stock. The average weight 
of oxen and sheep sold in Smithfield market has more 
than doubled since the middle of the last century, a re- 
sult to be ascribed to improved feeding quite as much 
as to increased care in breeding. 

The primitive condition of agriculture in America a 
century and a quarter ago is well illustrated in the fol- 
lowing extract from a work by the Swedish traveller, 
Kalm. Speaking of the James River colonists, he says : 

" They make scarce any manure for their corn fields, but whea 
one piece of ground has been exhausted by continual cropping, 
clear and cultivate another piece of fresh land, and when that is 
exhausted proceed to a third. Their cattle are allowed to wander 
through the woods and uncultivated grounds, where they are half 
starved, having long ago extirpated almost all the annual grasses 
by cropping them too early in the spring, before they had time 
to form their flowers or to shed their seeds.'' 

And the imperfect feeding caused the cattle to 
diminish in size generation by generation, till they grew 
so stunted and small, as to be appropriately called 
" runts." 



Agriculture, 183 

The advance made in agriculture and cattle-raising 
during the last half century has been prodigious ; and 
much of it is due either to the creation by American in- 
ventive genius of mechanical appHances, or to enforced 
European inventiveness resulting from American com- 
petition. From the earliest times American statesmen 
have directed their energies to the advancement of agri- 
cultural arts. Washington, with a burden of care such 
as has been the lot of few, found time to superintend 
agricultural operations and experiments. The im- 
portance of agriculture to civilization formed the text of 
his last annual message to Congress ; and the last elab- 
orate production of his pen, written only a week before 
his death, was a long letter to the manager of his farms, 
containing thirty-two folio sheets of directions for their 
cultivation during several succeeding years. Most of 
Washington' s successors to the Presidency gave per- 
sonal attention to agriculture. One of the most dis- 
tinguished of them, Mr. Jefferson, invented the hill-side 
plough ; and Adams, Calhoun, Clay, and Webster for- 
got the anxieties of statesmanship in the peaceful pur- 
suits of the farm. Beginning thus early, the advance- 
ment of agriculture has continued to be the first care of 
American statesmen and the American people, with the 
result that the Republic leads the world to-day not only 
in amount of agricultural products but in excellence of 
agricultural methods. 

One-fourth of the total wealth of America is em- 



1 84 



Triumphant Democracy. 



ployed in the cultivation of the soil, and that is about 
the proportion which agriculture contributes to the in- 
dustrial product. Statistics for 1830 being untrust- 
worthy, comparisons cannot be made with so early a 
period; but taking the figures of the census of 1850, 
which was very complete, we find that in the short space 
of thirty years the amount of improved land more than 
doubled. The following table shows the extent and 
regularity of the progress made : 



Total acres in farm 
Acres improved 
Number of farms 
Average size of 
farms 



1850 



i860 



1870 



293,560,614 407,212,538 407,735,041 536,081,835 
113,032,614 163. 1 10,720 188,921,099 284,771,042 



iSSo 



1,449.073. 2,044,077 



203 



199 



2,659,985 



4,008,907 
134 



It will be seen that the tendency is towards smaller 
rather than larger farms, notwithstanding the gigantic 
holdings which have been the fashion in recent years in 
some of the North-western States. The average farm has 
fallen in size from two hundred and three acres in 1850 
to one hundred and thirty-five acres in 1880. As this 
result has been reached under a system of absolute free- 
dom we are justified in assuming that the cultivation of 
holdings small enough to be worked by one family with- 
out employing help is found to be the condition best 
fitted for survival. When the writer was in the North- 
west upon the huge estates there, sagacious agriculturists 
in the district predicted that the small farmer upon his 



Agriculture, 185 

eighty or at the most one hundred and sixty acres would 
eventually drive out the great capitalists who had under- 
taken to farm thousands of acres by means of others* 
labor. This is most cheering news, for it is manifestly 
better for the State that a race of citizens, each his 
own master and landlord, should inhabit the land and 
call a small portion of it his own, than that one man 
should be lord over thousands of acres and over hun- 
dreds of farm laborers. Political and economical ends 
fortunately unite in this the grandest of all branches 
of industry in the nation. The centralization which 
seems inseparable in manufacturing is not, we may 
console ourselves, to invade the realms of agriculture. 
The State is still to rest in security upon millions 
who possess and cultivate the soil divided into small 
farms. Such citizens are the very life-blood of the Re- 
public. 

The improved land in 1880 was but fifteen per cent, 
of the total area, but even then, according to Mulhall, it 
produced thirty per cent, of the grain of the world. 
The capital invested in farms and farming was $10,600,- 
000,000 (;^2, 1 20,000,000), being more than three times 
as much as that invested in manufacturing, the next 
largest industry. The difference between "acres in 
farms," and " acres improved " is that the former in- 
cludes *' woodland and forest," which although owned 
by the farmer has not yet been cleared for crops. This 
is on the average nearly one-half of the farm, so that 



1 86 Triumphant Democracy. 

the productive acreage of the country may be, and no 
doubt soon will be, largely increased by the present 
farmers without adding greatly to the number of farms. 
The total number of acres under crop is two hundred 
and eighty-four million seven hundred and seventy-one 
thousand and forty-two, of which permanent meadows, 
pastures, orchards and vineyards comprise sixty-one 
million seven hundred and three thousand eight hun- 
dred and ninety- eight acres, the remainder being tilled 
land and land sown with grass in rotation of crops. 

It was a great survey at the beginning of the cen- 
tury to look back over sixty-five thousand square miles 
that had been brought under cultivation in the preced- 
ing decade. Between 1850 and i860, however, two hun- 
dred and fifteen thousand square miles had been turned 
into farms, and between 1870 and 1880 two hundred and 
ninety-seven thousand square miles. Thus in ten years 
territory equal in extent to Great Britain and France 
combined was added to the cultivated area in America. 
Even yet the progress continues. During the last year 
the sales of public lands to settlers exceeded sixteen 
million acres — an area as great as Belgium and Den- 
mark combined. In Dakota alone the new farms of 
1883 exceeded six million acres — one-third of all Scot- 
land. In the face of such facts it is clear that the 
Americans are the great agricultural people of the 
world, and that no other race has spread so diligently 
and so profitably over so great an area. 



Agriculture, 



187 



In 1880 an Inquiry was made for the first time in the 
United States into the tenure of farms — whether culti- 
vated by their owners, rented, or worked on shares, 
with the result shown in the following table : 





WORKED BY 
OWNERS. 


RENTED. 


WORKED ON 
SHARES. 


ACRES IN FARMS. 


Number. 


Per 

Cent. 


Number. 


Per 
Cent. 


Number. 


Per 
Cent. 


Under 3 

3 and under 10 

10 " 20 

20 " 50 

50 " 100 

100 " 500 

500 " 1,000 

1,000 and over . . . 


2,601 

85.456 

122,411 

460,486 

804,522 

1,416,618 

66,447 

25,765 


60 ' 

63 
48 

59 

78 

84 1 

87 1 
90 


875 
22,904 
41,522 

97.399 
69,663 

84,645 
3.956 

1,393 


20 

17 
16 

13 

7 
5 
5 
5 


876 

26,529 

90,816 

223,689 

158,625 

194,720 

5,569 
1,420 


20 
20 

3f> 

28 

15 
II 

8 
5 



This corroborates the current belief that the ma- 
jority of farms in America are cultivated by their ov/n- 
ers, nearly three million of the four million farms being 
of this class. Eight per cent, of the total were culti- 
vated upon shares. The farms most frequently rented 
for money are the smallest farms, and their number 
steadily decreases. Only in the South does the system 
of renting, especially for a share in the proceeds, pre- 
vail to any great extent. The system has grown up 
since the war, in consequence of the subdivision of the 
great plantations, most of the lessees being colored 
people. It marks a temporary stage of development 
succeeding slavery, and is certain to pass away as the 



1 88 TrtU7npha7it Democracy, 

renters are able to buy the land from the former 
owners, their old masters. The free play of individual 
forces tends to make the culivator of the soil its 
owner. There is no law of primogeniture or of en- 
tail in America, and the transfer of land is scarcely, 
if any, more difficult than the sale or purchase of a 
horse. 

The reputed value of farm land is $19.21 per acre, 
nearly £^, not much more than the rent per annum of 
some of the land in Britain. It ranges from .$34 
(nearly £f) in the North Atlantic group of States 
to $7.35 (^i.io) in the States of the Southern central 
group. 

From 1850 to i860 the value of farms more than 
doubled, while population increased only thirty-five per 
cent. On account of the Civil War the increase from 
i860 to 1870 was less than that of population, but from 
1870 to 1880 it rose thirty-seven per cent., which was 
seven per cent, greater than the increase of population, 
so that the tendency hitherto has been for land to in- 
crease in value even faster than the population. This 
has made the farmer of America highly prosperous 
during the past thirty years ; for even if he has only 
made a living for himself and family from the pro- 
duce and improved his land, he stands to-day with a 
property worth three and a half times its value thirty 
years ago. For every $500 (;^ioo) invested in his 
farm he has $1,750 (;^35o) to-day. Had he rented 



Agriculture, 189 

his farm from some huge landlord this unearned incre- 
ment would have gone to the landlord, and the worker 
would have been left where he began except for the 
savings in money he might have been able to make. 
The rise of values going on around him, which he did 
so much to produce, would have been of no benefit to 
him. He would not have been half the man he is, nor 
worth half as much to the State. That State alone is 
absolutely secure from violent measures whose soil 
belongs to the mass of its well-doing citizens. 

Improved implements and machinery have revolu- 
tionized agriculture in America. Their value in 1830 is 
estimated at but $150,000,000 (;^30,ooo,ooo), in 1880 it 
exceeded $450,000,000 (^^"90,000,000). The wide-spread 
use of machinery is mainly due to three causes, the scar- 
city of labor, which has in turn stimulated the fertility 
of American invention, and the readiness, amounting 
almost to anxiety, of the farmer to adopt the latest and 
best devices. Then the greater portion of the soil 
under cultivation is level and without obstructions, and 
admirably adapted for the use of machinery. It is no 
wonder that under such conditions America should be 
the foremost agricultural country of the world. No 
other country on earth has a chance in comparison. 
Even gigantic Russia grows not much more than half 
as much. Here is the record as given by Mulhall : 



igo 



Triumphant Democracy, 





ACRES 


PRODUCTION IN 


COUNTRIES. 








UNDER GRAIN. 


BUSHELS. 


United States . 


118,000,000 


2,698,000,000 


Russia .... 


158,000,000 


1,585,000,000 


Germany .... 


43,000,000 


990,000,000 


France .... 


40,000,000 


840,000,000 


Austro-Hungary 


35,000,000 


520,000,000 


United Kingdom 


12,500,000 


445,000,000 


Spain .... 


15,000,000 


300,000,000 


Italy 


18,000,000 


270,000,000 


Canada and Australia 


14,000,000 


140,000,000 



Just cast your eye over the march of the last thirty 
years and satisfy yourself that the Republic has tra- 
velled with its seven-league boots on. In 1850 only 
eight hundred and sixty-seven million bushels were pro- 
duced ; ten years more, one thousand two hundred mil- 
lion ; ten more, one thousand four hundred miUion ; 
and finally ten more in 1880, two thousand seven 
hundred million bushels from the generous bosom of 
good Mother Earth. Of this aggregate one thousand 
seven hundred and fifty millions were maize, four 
hundred and sixty millions wheat, and four hundred 
and seven milUons oats. The maize or Indian corn 
crop is therefore double that of wheat and oats. 
Maize, which is mostly consumed at home, is the staff of 
life for the hog, and horses and cattle are also fed upon 
it to a great extent throughout the country ; neverthe- 
less the export trade has grown year after year. Twenty 
years ago not $io,(X)0,ooo (^£2,000,000) worth were 
sent abroad; in 1880 more than five times that sum. 



Agriculture, 191 

A grand sight is a field of corn on a hot day. I re- 
member being upon a train in southern Illinois which, 
on account of obstructions on the line, had to lie upon a 
siding for several hours. Nothing but corn was in 
sight over the great level plain. I wandered among 
the immense stalks, some at least fourteen feet high ; a 
heavy dew had fallen during the night, and the hot 
morning sun was now well up in the heavens. Crack 
after crack resounded like pistol shots. It was the corn 
bursting its coverings. I imagined I could actually see 
it grow ; I know I felt it do so. What would America 
do without its maize and cotton, the two pillars upon 
which its agricultural supremacy so largely depends! 
She is pretty sure of the future, however, for upon no 
other portion of the globe can these be grown to such 
advantage. 

England is more interested in the wheat than in the 
maize crop. Well, the increase in this indispensable 
cereal has been even greater than in any other crop. 
It is doubtful whether any agricultural growth was ever 
as rapid as that of wheat in this country during the past 
thirty years. Down to 1859 ^^^ Republic used to im- 
port wheat at intervals from Europe ; nov/ she is the 
purveyor of the staff of life for mankind, producing one- 
fourth of the world's crop. In 1850 only one hundred 
million bushels were grown; in i860 the crop was one 
hundred and seventy-three millions, not bad, being an 
increase of seventy per cent, in ten years ; but in 1870 



192 Triumphant Democracy, 

the amount was two hundred and eighty-seven millions, 
and in 1880 we find the crop four hundred and fifty- 
nine millions. It exceeded five hundred millions of 
bushels last year. 

Twenty-five years ago (i860) the export of wheat and 
flour averaged between six and eight millions sterling. In 
1880 $190,000,000(^^38,000,000) worth were sent forth, of 
which Britain alone received $175,000,000 (iJ" 3 5, 000,000). 

The reported decrease in acreage under wheat this 
year (1885) on account of low prices will prove, in my 
opinion, to be only temporary, pending the adjustment 
to a standard of lower values. This great cereal will 
be grown, and delivered in British ports in constantly 
increasing quantities at prices even lower (if necessary) 
than those which have surprised so many eminent author- 
ities. The British Commissioners who recently visited 
us and reported upon the agricultural situation did not 
allow for the shrinkage of the excessive margins of 
profit which the growth and transportation and mer- 
chandising of wheat have hitherto yielded at every 
stage of the operation. I differ from most of the 
foreign experts and believe that a continuance of the 
present depression throughout the world will send 
plenty of American wheat to the ports of Britain at 
lower prices than those of to-day. We shall see. The 
Republic has never yet had to show what it could do 
when put to it. 

One is surprised to find that oats are so largely 



Agriculture, 193 

grown in America, for so little is heard of that modest 
grain compared with its much talked of neighbor. The 
North-western States are admirably adapted to its 
growth, and instead of Scotch and Irish oatmeal being 
imported for human food, as it was until recently, the 
native article is found fully equal to it in quality. Such 
was proved to be the case at the last Paris Exhibition. 
Indeed, nothing surprised me so much as to hear my 
Scotch visitors to America three years ago declare that 
American oatmeal porridge surpassed the Dunfermline 
article. The other indispensable commodity for a 
Scotchman, however, they pronounced miserable ; nei- 
ther '* Bourbon " nor '' Old Monongahela " found favor 
with them. The verdict was that only by a stretch of 
politeness almost to bursting was the stuff worthy to 
take the revered name of whiskey. This, however, is 
a matter of taste, for more topers in the world prefer 
the republican to the queer Scotch article. 

The production of barley increases rapidly. The 
census of 1850 shows that only five million bushels were 
grown then. In ten years it had increased to sixteen 
millions, in ten more (1870) to twenty-nine millions, 
while 1880 shows forty-four millions of bushels. So 
much for bold John Barleycorn. The acreage under 
barley (1880) was a little less than two' millions ; yield 
per acre twenty-two bushels. The United Kingdom 
had then six hundred and sixty thousand acres more 

devoted to this grain, so the barley crop of America is 
13 



194 Triumphant Deinocracy, 

not yet equal to that of the old home, but its increase 
of growth here is extraordinary, for between 1850 and 
i860 it was two hundred and six per cent. It more 
than doubled in ten years. California is the leading 
State in barley and New York comes next. 

In the United States in 1880, one million eight hun- 
dred and forty thousand acres were sown with rye ; prod- 
uct, twenty million bushels. Rye does not figure in 
the returns for Britain, which are before me, the au- 
thorities saying that very little is now grown there. 

After all it is not maize, cotton, wheat, oats, barley, 
or rye which is ruler in the agricultural kingdom, but 
a more modest grass. Hay is the most valuable of all 
American crops; the amount cut in 1880 exceeded 
thirty-six millions of tons grown on more than thirty 
millions of acres. It has kept pace with its rivals, for in 
1850, not quite fourteen million tons were grown. 
Even twenty years ago but nineteen millions were re- 
ported, so that it has nearly doubled in two decades. 

Sorghum is the only important plant of recent intro- 
duction. Though a stranger, it seems to thrive in its 
new home, and its cultivation spreads rapidly. In 1880 
more than twenty-eight million gallons of molasses were 
made from it, more than half a gallon for every man, 
woman, and child in the country. 

We now come to the great Southern staple, King 
Cotton. An ancient and honorable potentate truly, for 
does not Herodotus tell us four hundred and fifty years 



Agriculture, 195 

B. C. that the Indians were then weaving it into cloth, 
and did not Cassar cover the Forum and the Sacred 
Way, too, with awnings of cotton to shade the dignita- 
ries of the Imperial City from the rays of the sun? In 
162 1 the first cotton was planted in America. It did 
not take kindly to the climate. Many experiments 
failed, although repeated at different times and at va- 
rious places ; and more than a hundred and fifty-seven 
years elapsed before a pound of cotton was exported. 
'^ In 1784, a small quantity of cotton was imported into 
Liverpool, where it was at first considered as an illegal 
transaction, as it was not supposed possible for it to 
have been the growth of any of the States of the 
Union ; and when, about the same period, a duty was 
proposed in the United States Congress on the import 
of foreign cotton, it was declared by one of the repre- 
sentatives from South CaroHna, that the cultivation of 
cotton was in contemplation by the planters of South 
Carolina and Georgia, * and that if good seed could be 
procured it might succeed.' " 

We ought never to give up readily a new thing, 
whether plant or idea, for success often lies just beyond 
the last failure. For the six years following the ex- 
ports to England were respectively one hundred and 
nine, three hundred and eighty-nine, and then eight 
hundred and forty-two bags. After Independence 
(1776) cotton began to attract special attention. 
Whitney's gin for separating the seeds from the fibre 



196 Triumpha7it Democracy, 

removed the only obstacle to its almost unlimited pro- 
duction. A tariff upon the importation of cotton 
goods led to the manufacture of cloth at home, and cot- 
ton cultivation receiving a further impetus, America 
soon became the leading source of supply for the world. 
Not to go back further than half a century we find that 
in 1830, nine hundred and seventy-six thousand eight 
hundred and forty-five bales were grown; in 1880, the 
crop was five million seven hundred and fifty-seven 
thousand three hundred and ninety-seven bales, valued 
at $275,000,000 (^5 5,000,000). Of the 1 830 crop, $30,000,- 
000 (i^6,ooo,ooo) worth was exported ; of the 1880 crop, 
$220,000,000 (;^44,ooo,ooo), of which England took nearly 
two-thirds. The latter, however, included manufactured 
cotton, of which in 1830 there was none. So that the 
value of the cotton exported exceeded that of wheat 
by $30,000,000 (;^6,ooo,ooo). 

Tobacco-growing still continues to prosper in Amer- 
ica, although surely the coming man is not to smoke. 
Chewing is already a thing of the past, and the pipe and 
cigar are doomed. Before many generations the smoker 
will be considered as disgusting as the chewer is to-day. 
America increased her crop eighty per cent, from 1870 
to 1880, and six hundred and thirty-eight thousand acres 
are now devoted to the weed. Its value in 1880 was 
three and a half millions sterling. Brother Jonathan 
makes a fair division of his tobacco with the rest of 
mankind, for he sends just about half of it abroad and 



Agriculture, 197 

smokes the other half himself. ^'Takc a cigar," he says, 
and hands one to less favored nations, reserving only- 
one for himself. Generous fellow, Jonathan ! 

We must not ignore the so-called fruit of old Ire- 
land, the potato, which however is a native, true Amer- 
ican, in origin. America does her share in growing 
potatoes, those apples of the earth. In 1880 she pro- 
duced tv/o hundred and three millions of bushels, a 
little more than four bushels to every man, woman, and 
child. I do not believe I had my fair proportion, which 
for every adult must be six bushels, nor do I think any 
one in America will admit having devoured his share. 
He will rather dispute the census returns. As none 
were exported, we must pass as a potato-eating people, 
or suspect our fellow-citizens of Irish descent of having 
eaten much more than their share, which they probably 
did. 

The enormous quantity of fruit grown and consumed 
in America surprises the visitor. Notwithstanding its 
cheapness, the orchard products in 1880 were valued at 
$52,500,000 (;^ 10,500,000), and there was imported an 
average of six pounds of fruit to each person, worth 
altogether about $20,000,000 (;^4,ooo,ooo). 

The total value of the year's product of Uncle 
Sam's farm in 1880 was $2,225,000,000 (;^445, 000,000), 
and it was not a good year for prices either. He has 
netted much more than that since — more than $2,500,- 
ooD,coo (^500,000,000). Indeed, Mulhall values the 



198 Triumphant Democracy, 

total agricultural products for 1884 at no less than 
$2,721,500,000 (^544,300,000). 

Let us now glance at the live stock upon his gigan- 
tic farm and their products, and see what he has to 
show us there. 

He first asks us to review his hogs, a motley mass 
ranging from the patrician Howard (he of Bedford, M. 
P.) down to the plebeian, long-snouted grunter, which 
must *' root or die." Fifty-six and three-quarter mil- 
lions march past. Imagine their salute. Every man, 
woman, and child in the land owns one hog and a little 
more. Now comes his cattle with their glowering eyes, 
and the line stretches till nearly forty-six millions are 
counted. Eighteen and a half millions of them are 
milch cows, the most widely scattered and most equally 
diffused of all his beasts. Throughout America every 
family of three persons have one milch cow and a 
fraction of another one. He exhibits his sheep next, 
forty-five millions of them, and enough left over to 
stock an ordinary country. Not quite a sheep to every 
inhabitant, but pretty near it. 

Will it please you now to look at Uncle Sam*s 
horses ? Trot them out. Twelve millions and a half 
of these useful, noble animals, ranging from the fastest 
trotters in the world, from " Maud S " with her record 
of a mile in two minutes, eight and three-quarter 
seconds, to the half-wild *' tackey " of Florida. There 
they are, followed by more than two millions of mules 



Agriculhire. 199 

and asses, which close the long procession. The census 
proves that on the average every family in the country 
really owns a horse, a cow, four pigs, and three sheep, 
not a bad start for a young farmer. 

Were the live stock upon Uncle Sains estate ranged 
five abreast, each aiiiinal estimated to occupy a space 
five feet long, and inarched round the world, the head 
and tail of the procession would overlap. This was the 
host of 1880; that of 1885 would be ever so much 
greater, and still it grows day by day, and the end of 
its growth no man can foretell. 

Having reviewed the live stock, let me now conduct 
you to the dairy to see the butter and cheese depart- 
ments. Four hundred thousand tons of butter were 
made in 1880, an average of nearly sixteen pounds for 
every man, woman, and child in the country. Ah ! the 
Yankee's bread is buttered in more ways than one. 
In 1870, eighty thousand tons of cheese were made; 
in 1880, one hundred and twenty thousand tons. 
Since the introduction of the factory system, cheese 
manufacturing has increased enormously. The Ameri- 
can does not care for cheese as his progenitor does. 
What he makes he sends largely abroad to figure as 
Stilton, Cheshire, or Cheddar in Britain, for he manu- 
factures all brands, and you cannot tell the republican 
article from its monarchical prototype. The cheese ex- 
ported in 1 88 1 was worth more than three and a quar- 
ter millions sterling. The statistics laid before the Na- 



200 Triumphant Democracy, 

tional Butter, Cheese, and Egg Association at Its late 
meeting in Chicago represent that the annual value of 
dairy products in this country is $100,000,000 (i^20,000,- 
000) while the amount of capital interested in cows is 
said to be greater by $40,000,000 (;^8,ooo,ooo) than 
that invested in bank stocks. 

What does the American do with all the products 
of this live stock and dairy ? First, he supplies his own 
wants — and these are great, for fifty-six millions of the 
most prosperous people in the world, every one of them 
determined to have the best he can afford, and accus- 
tomed to the most expensive food, consume an enor- 
mous amount. The surplus he exports, and Britain is 
by far the largest recipient, taking of many articles half 
of all he has to spare. 

In 1870 began a new traffic — the exportation of 
living cattle — of which $400,000 (;^8o,ooo) worth were 
sent to Britain; in 1880 this trade exceeded $12,500,000 
(;^2, 500,000). The exportation of fresh beef was tried 
in 1875, and in 1880 the value of this article exported 
was $7,500,000 (ii" 1, 5 00,000). 

The American hog has been a prime favorite In Eu- 
rope during the past twenty years. In i860 the amount 
of hams and bacon exported v/as only $2,050,000 (^^410,- 
000) ; in 1880 the demand was for more than $50,000,000 
(i^ 10,000,000) worth. Britain takes the greater part. 
What a prejudice against American hams and bacon 
formerly existed there ! I remember walking one day 



Agric^llture, 20i 

through a curer's establishment in an English town 
where the pigs of the district were killed and who was 
supposed to deal only in the genuine home article. He 
furnished, no doubt, the much praised ham and sweet 
bacon of which my friends boasted as so different 
from the foreign article. A pile of half hidden 
boxes, marked Chicago, caught my eye. I called the 
proprietor aside and asked whether the contents were 
superior or inferior to the domestic. He smiled and 
said : '^ Sometimes the one and sometimes the other," 
adding, '' We are queer folk ! " The American article 
now stands upon its merits, but many a ton of it is still 
sold as genuine English. $85,000,000 (ii" 17,000,000) is 
the annual revenue of Uncle Sam from his pigs. 

But little mutton is sent abroad. The value of the 
exports in 1884 was less than $300,000 (;^6o,OOo). 
But with the steady and rapid improvement in the 
breed of sheep which is taking place in Am.erica, we 
may anticipate at no distant date a large trade in this 
article, which Australia has found so profitable. 

Twenty years ago the mutton of America was not 
worth eating. It is still inferior to that of Britain, but 
it is growing better every year. Whether it can ever 
reach the grade of the best Scotch is doubtful, but the 
improvement in the sheep here is shown by the increase 
of wool, which is beyond the increase in the number of 
sheep. Between 1850 and i860 the increase of wool 
production was fourteen per cent. ; during the next dec- 



202 Triumphant Democracy. 

ade it was sixty-six per cent., and between 1870 and 
1880 no less than one hundred and forty-seven per cent. 
The average fleece in 1850 was but two three-tenths 
pounds; in 1880 it had nearly doubled (four four-tenths 
pounds). The fleece of a sheep in the North averages 
more than five pounds, but in the genial South the ani- 
mal does not need so warm a coat. If God tempers the 
wind to the shorn lamb, He also adapts the fleece to 
the climate, and sees that the Southern sheep is not 
over-burdened. In this matter of sheep's covering one 
agrees with the sage who said that, " Although the 
Lord does temper the wind to the shorn lamb, the Lord 
considers it man's business not to shear too closed 

Wool-growing in America shows the usual increase. 
In 1830 the fleece was but eighteen millions of pounds; 
in 1850, fifty-two million; in i860, sixty million, and in 
1870, one hundred million. In the last ten years it has 
much more than doubled, for in 1880 the fleece weighed 
two hundred and forty millions of pounds. Could any 
one believe that America grows more than double 
the amount of wool grown in the United Kingdom ! 
It surprised me to find that such was indeed the case, 
for the fleece of the latter in 1880 was but one hundred 
and twelve millions of pounds. As one travels through 
Britain, go where he will, he is scarcely ever out of sight 
or out of hearing of the omnipresent sheep. In English 
meadows and on heather hills the white specks dot the 
ground. In our coaching tour we seemed to pass 



Agriculttire. 203 

through endless herds of sheep on both sides of the 
road, while upon this side of the Atlantic we scarcely 
see the innocent creatures, and indeed what can be 
called a flock is the rarest sight. Yet the stragglers 
counted upon the three million square miles exceed the 
crowded flocks of Britain, whose pastoral beauties they 
so much enhance. Mulhall gives the average of wool per 
sheep in the United Kingdom as four pounds, and that 
of America as five pounds ; which is correct if the 
Southern sheep be not included. This is another sur- 
prise to me. I should have said the average amount of 
Avool upon the British sheep far exceeded that of its 
seemingly less prosperous transatlantic fellow. It is ev- 
ident that America is more favorably placed for sheep 
growing than is generally supposed. Is there anything, 
I wonder, in the agricultural or live stock line in which 
she cannot excel ! 

Let me call the attention of my readers to the signif- 
icant fact that no articles of general consumption have 
increased in price in America during recent years ex- 
cept beef, mutton, and pork, which have advanced inor- 
dinately, the opening of European markets to American 
producers having naturally reduced the supply at home. 
With these exceptions the cost of living has been much 
lessened. The growth of this export trade is seen by 
the following figures. In 1870 the total value of ex- 
ports of meat in the hoof, fresh or preserved, was only 
$i7,5CX),ooo (^3,500,000); in five years it had run up 



204 Triumphant Democracy. 

to nearly $70,000,000 (;^ 14,000,000), and in 1880 no less 
than $117,500,000 (;^23,500,ooo) worth were taken from 
the home market. America was not prepared to under- 
go this unexpected drain, hence the change in values. 
The export value of beef in 1870 was less than $20 
(^^4) per head, in 1880 it was not far from $75 
(;^I5). Three and a half beeves were thus suppUed 
ten years ago for the cost of one in 1880. A similar ap- 
preciation has taken place in the value of sheep, the 
price of which, $2 (8^) per head in 1871, rose to $4.25 
(17^) nine years later. In live hogs we have the 
same result, though these obtained their maximum 
value in 1874, when each hog exported cost more 
than $10 (;^2). Restrictive legislation in various 
countries having interrupted the trade, prices during 
1880 averaged only $5 (^i) per head. But even had 
no hostile legislation been passed, the capacity of this 
country to supply in a short time any number of hogs 
required must have occasioned a rapid fall in prices. 
What has happened with hogs must happen soon with 
cattle and sheep. Look out for a great fall in these 
from the figures of 1880. The RepubHc v/as taken un- 
awares. Let us see what will be her response after a 
few years to the demands upon her ever growing herds. 
To conclude with a summary. The farms of America 
comprise eight hundred and thirty-seven thousand six 
hundred and twenty-eight square miles, an area nearly 
equal to one-fourth of Europe, and larger than the four 



Agriculture. 205 

greatest European countries put together (Russia ex- 
cepted), namely, France, Germany, Austria and Hun- 
gary, and Spain. The capital invested in agriculture 
would suffice to buy up the whole of Italy, with its rich 
olive-groves and vineyards, its old historic cities, cathe- 
drals, and palaces, its king and aristocracy, its pope and 
cardinals, and every other feudal appurtenance. Or, if 
the American farmers vv^ere to sell out, they could buy 
the entire peninsula of Spain, with all its traditions of 
medieval grandeur, and the flat lands which the Hol- 
landers at vast cost have wrested from, the sea and the 
quaint old towns they have built there. If he chose to 
put by his savings for three years, the Yankee farmer 
could purchase the fee-simple of pretty Switzerland as 
a summer resort, and not touch his capital at all, for 
each year's earnings exceed $550,000,000 (i^i 10,000,- 
000). The cereal crop for 1880 was more than two 
billions and a half of bushels. If placed in one mass 
this would make a pile of three and a half billion 
cubic feet. Built into a solid mass as high as the dome 
of St. Paul's (three hundred and sixty-five feet), and as 
wide as the cathedral across the transepts (two hundred 
and eighty-five feet), it would extend, a solid mass of 
grain, down Fleet Street and the length of the Strand 
to Piccadilly, thence on through Knightsbridge, Ham- 
mersmith and South Kensington, to a distance of over 
six miles. Or it would make a pyramid three times as 
great as that of Cheops. If loaded on carts, it would 



2o6 Triumphant Democracy. 

require all the horses in Europe and a million more 
(thirty-three and a half millions) to remove it, though 
each horse drew a load of two tons. Were the entire 
crop of cereals loaded on a continuous train of cars, the 
train would reach one and a half times round the globe. 
Its value is half as great as all the gold mined in Cali- 
fornia in the thirty-five years since gold was found 
there. The corn and cotton fields of America form 
kingdoms in themselves surpassing in size some of those 
of Europe. 

In 1884 more than half a million animals were sent 
to Europe alive, while nearly a billion pounds of meat 
was sent over. And four years before the total value 
of meat on the hoof, fresh or preserved, sent to Eu- 
rope, was $1,175,000,000 (^235,000,000). It is hard 
to realize just what this muster really means. If the 
Atlantic could be crossed as the Red Sea was by Moses* 
host, and these animals were placed ten abreast, each 
averaging five feet in length, the procession would be 
fifty miles long. Such a line the Republic sends every 
year to Europe ; " the dead meats " being far beyond 
this, however, in value, for, as usual, here we find the 
dead as compared to the living in " the great majority.** 
Of cheese one hundred and thirteen million pounds 
were exported last year (1884), v/hile one-fifth that quan- 
tity of butter was sent to lay upon the bread which the 
Republic had sent to Europe. She is no niggard, this 
Greater Britain ; she scatters her bounties not only pro- 



Agriculture, 207 

fusely but in palatable proportions. May her capacity 
for good works never grow less ! 

These enormous food exports suggest serious 
thoughts concerning the future. The populations of 
the Old World are fast increasing without any extension 
of soil or corresponding increase of productiveness. 
Since the beginning of the century one hundred and 
seventy-tv/o millions of Europeans have grown to three 
hundred and twelve millions. This is an advance un- 
precedented in the history of the Old World. Without 
the enormous shipments of food from America and 
other places such an increase would probably have been 
impossible. The present consumption of food by Eu- 
rope is vastly greater than its production. The deficit 
per year of grain is three hundred and eighty million 
bushels, more than a bushel for every man, woman, and 
child in Europe ; while that of meat amounts to eight 
hundred and fifty-three thousand tons, six pounds 
for every man, woman, and child. The future growth 
of Europe, therefore, seems chiefly dependent upon sup- 
plies of food from abroad — mainly from America : every 
addition to the population must be fed for the most 
part from without. The United Kingdom is particu- 
larly thus dependent. Mr. Giffen estimates that twelve 
millions, one-third of the whole population, already 
live on imported food. 

It would be difficult to exaggerate the consequences 
of this fact, ever growing in importance. The social and 



2o8 Triumphant Democracy. 

economic changes involved may be of the most radical 
character. No doubt, as Mr. Caird and other eminent 
authorities state, that by better and more thorough cul- 
tivation the soil of Europe and especially that of Britain 
can be made to yield an increase, but we assume that 
this can be obtained only at greater cost and to a small 
extent. The proportion of Europeans dependent for 
food upon the New World will probably increase from 
year to year. Happily there is no question as to its 
undeveloped resources, which are capable of extension 
quite sufficient to meet any possible demand for a 
period if not quite as far as we are tempted to look 
ahead, certainly quite as far as we can see ahead, which 
is a very different matter. When we think over the 
changes produced during fifty years' march of this 
Republic we must surely hesitate to speculate beyond 
what the next fifty years are to bring, and for fifty 
years ahead at least we can see that America can give 
Europe all the food it will require. Beyond that let 
posterity manage for itself. The man who is always 
telling you what he would have done " if he had been 
there " in any given emergency is he who never gets 
there. And none of my readers will ever " get there " 
to the day when the Republic cannot respond to any 
call made upon her for agricultural products. Millions 
and millions of fertile acres, under sunny skies and 
watered with refreshing showers, still lie before us only 
awaiting the plough, to respond with food for man. 



Agric2ilture, 2og 

It is in the cultivation of this heritage and the build- 
ing up of the cities and of the roads and railways and 
telegraphs which must accompany this work and the 
erection of school-houses and churches throughout the 
land that the American people w^ill find their proper 
development, not in chasing the fiction of the carrying 
of merchandise upon the high seas for which they must 
contend at a disadvantage. Much less should they call 
for the building of war ships. The present lack of a 
navy ensures the nation a dignified position. It is one 
of the chief glories of the Republic, that she spends her 
money for better ends and has nothing worthy to rank 
as a ship of war. To build a few small ships and call 
them a navy will invite comparison, and the " rascally 
comparative " must only make the Republic ridiculous, 
for she either wants the strongest navy in the world or 
none. If she builds the weakest she builds her ships 
for the stronger enemy to sink or capture, if she ever 
has an enemy, which is to be doubted unless she flaunts 
before the other powers great monster ships expressly 
designed to work them injury. There is an effort to 
produce a scare just now in regard to her defenceless 
sea coast ; any small power could attack her ports and 
levy contributions, it is said. So any man who walks 
down Broadway may be attacked by a disorderly fellow, 
but no one suggests that we walk about, therefore, in 
coats of mail. There is not a port of America which 
could not be efficiently closed, if necessary, against an 
14 



2IO Triumphant Democracy. 

assailant before he had time to reach it ; fortunately 
there is Httle prospect that the Republic will ever have 
an assailant if she remain unarmed. When nations 
provide themselves with arms ostensibly for defence, 
offence travels not far in the rear, accompanies it as 
shadow does substance. Shakespeare tells us 

*' How oft the means to do ill deeds 

Make ill deeds done." 

I beseech my fellow Republicans to leave to the 
monarchies of the Old World the folly and the crime of 
building and maintaining these vast engines of destruc- 
tion, the mere possession of which tends to make war 
between nations which would otherwise have remained 
at peace. 

Of all the lessons which the Democracy has given, 
or is capable of giving, to people in less advanced stages 
of political development, this ranks supreme, that 
peace has its victories still more renowned than war. 
So far, the Democracy can congratulate itself that its 
country's reputation rests not upon conquest nor wars 
of aggression, but upon the nobler foundation of peace- 
ful, orderly, industrial development. Men and breth- 
ren, let us see to it that our Representatives do not 
tarnish this record by stripping the Republic of the 
majestic robes of golden Peace to array her in the 
panoply of barbarous War ! 



CHAPTER .X. 

MANUFACTURES. 

"In a general way, it may safely be predicted that the nation which 
has the most varied industry is likely, all other things being equal, to be 
the most prosperous, powerful, and contented. Agriculture, though the 
first and most essential of all callings, is still far from yielding the best 
results from a commercial and industrial point of view." "England's 
Supremacy." — Jeans. 

" Labor is discovered to be the grand conquerer, 
enriching and building up nations more surely than the 
greatest battles," says Channing. 

Of this truth the Republic is proof conclusive, for 
she has become the greatest manufacturing nation of 
the world by labor, not by luck. 

" What men call luck, 
Is the prerogative of valiant souls." 

Since the earliest period in their history the Ameri- 
can people have devoted great attention to and mani- 
fested unusual aptitude for manufactures. The first 
colonists fully realized their importance ; and so ener- 
getically did they devote themselves to their develop- 
ment that by 1670, when the population numbered 
less than two hundred thousand, their progress had 
already begun to excite the jealousy of the mother 
country. Despite the restrictions which Great Britain 



212 Triumphant Democracy, 

placed upon the colonial trade, the manufacture and 
commerce of America grew rapidly. The moral cost 
at which the advance was made, however, was very 
great. It may be guaged by the fact, certified by the 
Hon. David A. Wells, that the colonists were /' a 
nation of law-breakers : nine-tenths of the colonial mer- 
chants were smugglers. One-quarter of the whole num- 
ber of the signers of the Declaration oT Independence 
were bred to the contraband trade. John Hancock was 
the prince of contraband traders, and, with John Adams 
as his counsel, was on trial before the Admiralty Court 
in Boston at the exact hour of the shedding of blood at 
Lexington, to answer for half a million dollars' penalties 
alleged to have been by him incurred as a smuggler.'* 
The evils and sufferings caused by the narrow policy of 
the home government can be but vaguely conceived 
even in view of this wholesale demoralization of a gen- 
erous and otherv/ise law-abiding people. The efforts of 
the British to cripple the industries of America did not 
end, as might be supposed, with the success of the Revo- 
lution. Transatlantic manufacturers sought to continue 
their repressive measures long after Independence was 
achieved, and their methods of procedure took many a 
curious turn. Bishop, the historian of American indus- 
try, says : 

" It was supposed to be an object worth large sacrifices on the 
part of the English manufacturers to break down the formidable 
rivalship of growing but immature manufactures in America, by 



Mamifactures, 213 

means of heavy consignments of goods to be disposed of at auction, 
and upon the most liberal credits, to the merchants. That this 
policy had the approval of eminent British statesmen, is shown by 
the remarkable language of Mr. Brougham in Parliament, soon 
after the peace (1815), when he declared in reference to the losses 
sustained by English manufacturers in these transactions, that it 
was 'even worth while to incur a loss upon the first exportation, in 
order by the glut to stifle in the cradle these rising manufactures 
in the United States, which the war had forced into existence con- 
trary to the natural course of things.' " 

All this is of the past, and is only referred to as 
essential to a proper understanding of the subject under 
review. Britain did what she did because in those days 
nobody knew any better, as explained in the chapter 
upon occupations. 

The steady nature of the progress of American 
manufactures is indicated by the ever increasing ratio 
of manufactures to population. This is shown by Mul- 
hall as follows : 

PRODUCT PER INHABITANT. 



1830 . . 


. ^1.8 


1850 . . 


. ^9-1 


1870 . . 


. ;^21.2 


1840 . 


. 57 


i860 . . 


12.2 


1880 . . 


22.0 



An increase of more than ten times the products per 
inhabitant in fifty years. 

It is interesting to note that as the country became 
more densely settled, the importance of manufactures 
relative to agriculture increased. In 1850 the capital 
invested in manufactures was only eight per cent, of 



214 Triumphant Democracy, 

that in agriculture. In i860 it was thirteen per cent.; 
in 1870 nineteen per cent.; and in 1880 it reached 
twenty-three per cent., or nearly one-fourth that of agri- 
culture. In 1870 the value of the products of manufac- 
ture less that of raw materials was seventy-one per 
cent, of the value of agricultural products, while in 
1880 the proportion had risen to eighty-nine per cent. 
So that great as the growth of agriculture in America 
has been, and the world has never before seen the 
like, that of manufactures has been even greater. 
No statement in this book will probably cause so much 
surprise as that the young Republic and not Great 
Britain is to-day the greatest manufacturing nation of 
the world, for she is generally credited with being great 
only in agriculture. 

The annual product of each operative has advanced 
in value from $1,100 (;^22o) in 1850 to $2,015 (;^403) in 
1880; a result largely due to improvements in methods 
and machinery. This cause, joined to the increase in 
number of workers, resulted in an advance of total 
manufactures from $1,060,000,000 (;^2 12,000,000) in 
1850 to $5,560,000,000 (;^ 1, 1 12,000,000) in 1880 — an 
increase of nearly six hundred per cent, in thirty years. 
During the same period the increase of British manu- 
factures was little more than a hundred per cent. 
Their total in 1880 was but $4,055,000,000 (;^8ii,- 
000,000). 

An industry which has attained gigantic proportions 



Manufactures. 215 

during the fifty years under review, is that of flouring 
and grist-mills. Indeed if we judge by value of prod- 
ducts, this is the foremost industry of the United 
States; for the product of 1880 exceeded $5CX),ooo,ooo 
(;^ 1 00,000,000). The capital invested in this industry 
was $177,400,000 (nearly ;^ 3 6,000,000), there being in 
operation no fewer than twenty-four thousand flouring 
and grist-mills with a daily capacity of five million 
bushels — sufficient if need be to grind flour for not only 
the fifty millions of Americans, but for three hundred 
million Europeans, who annually consume one billion 
three hundred and forty-seven million bushels. 

The value added to the food by milling was thirteen 
per cent, of the cost of the grain. During the decade 
ending 1880 the capital employed in this industry in- 
creased forty-six per cent. ; the grain dealt with in- 
creased forty-seven per cent. ; wages increased forty- 
nine per cent. The number of hands employed how- 
ever diminished slightly — a circumstance due to im- 
provements in machinery. This is a growing character- 
istic of all American industries : the drudgery is ever 
being delegated to dumb machines while the brain and 
muscle of men are directed into higher channels. 

The industry next in importance, judged by value of 
product, is slaughtering and mieat packing. Though of 
comparatively recent origin, this industry has attained 
enormous proportions. The capital employed in 1880 
was about ten millions sterling, furnishing employment 



2i6 Triumphant DeiJtocracy. 

to more than twenty-seven thousand hands, whose 
wages amounted to $10,500,000 (i^2, 100,000), an average 
of nearly $400 (;^8o) each. The beeves slaughtered 
numbered one million seven hundred thousand ; sheep, 
two million two hundred thousand ; hogs, sixteen 
millions. This was enough to give every man, woman, 
and child in America and Great Britain half a pound 
of meat thrice a v/eek for a year. That this industry 
is to undergo vast developments is shown by the 
attention paid to the pastoral interests : farming stock 
increased thirty-three per cent, all round during the ten 
years ending in 1880. There were in that year nearly a 
hundred and fifty million cows, sheep, and hogs in the 
United States. 

It is at Chicago that the traveller sees the murderous 
work going on upon the grandest scale, for in 1880 five 
and three-quarter million pigs were turned into pork, 
and half a million cattle " packed." So rapidly is this 
industry increasing that in Chicago alone one million 
one hundred and eighty thousand and nine hundred 
cattle were killed last year. The perfection of the 
machinery employed is illustrated by the claim Chi- 
cagoans make for it, viz., that you can see a living hog 
driven into the machine at one end, and the hams from 
it safely delivered at the other end before the squeal of 
the animal is out of your ears. But, as Matthew Arnold 
said, when asked to see this verified, or at least the foun- 
dation upon which the story rests, *' Why should I see 



Mamcfactures, 



217 



pigs killed ! Why should I hear pigs squeal ! " He de- 
clined. My readers can therefore see, if so inclined, 
one of the sights which a distinguished traveller missed, 
which is ever a great advantage. 

The iron and steel industries rank next in impor- 
tance, the product for 1883 being valued at §400,000,000 
(i^8o,ooo,ooo). The production of pig-iron has increased 
at a prodigious rate. The output for 1883 was five and 
a quarter million tons, more than thirteen times the quan- 
tity produced in 1840. With this unparalleled increase 
in quantity, there has gone a corresponding improvement 
in quality which has placed American iron and steel on 
a par with the best produced by the iron-king, Great 
Britain. 

In 1870 the United States was much below France 
or Germany as regards the manufacture of steel ; ten 
years later it produced more than these countries to- 
gether. America now makes one-fifth of the iron, and 
one-fourth of the steel of the world, and is second only 
to Great Britain. In steel, America will probably lead 
the world in 1890, as may be seen from the following 
summary : 





1850. 


1870. 


1881. 


Great Britain, 
United States, 
Germany, 
France, 


Tons. 
49,000 

22,000 


Tons. 
245,000 

64,000 
170,000 

94,000 


Tons. 

1,780,000 

1,374,000 

865,000 

418,000 



2i8 Triumphant Democracy. 

Probably the most rapid development of an Industry 
that the world has ever seen is that of Bessemer steel 
in America. As the foregoing table shows, there were 
only sixty-four thousand tons of all kinds of steel made 
in 1870. Of this only forty thousand tons was Bessemer; 
twelve years later, 1882, the product was one million 
two hundred and fifty thousand tons. This is advan- 
cing not by leaps and bounds, it is one grand rush — 
a rush without pause, which has made America the 
greatest manufacturer of Bessemer steel in the world. 
Last year the Republic made one million three 
hundred and seventy-three thousand five hundred and 
thirteen tons, which was seventy-four thousand tons 
more than Great Britain made. In steel rails her 
superiority is even more marked. The output of Brit- 
ain was six hundred and forty-seven thousand tons 
against nine hundred and fifty-four thousand made in 
the United States. 

Pennsylvania wears the iron crown, nearly one-half 
the capital invested being there, while forty-six per 
cent, of the total product is contributed by it. Ohio 
ranks second, New York follows, with Illinois closely 
treading on her heels. 

The future outlook for the iron and steel industries 
of America is highly encouraging ; for iron-stone in 
greater or less quantities has been discovered in most 
of the newly-opened States of the West. The pro- 
duction of iron was commenced between 1870 and 



Mamifachtres, 219 

1880 in no less than six States, Colorado, Kansas, 
Nebraska, Oregon, and Texas, and in New Hampshire 
in the East. These infant industries are rapidly de- 
veloping, but a great increase of population must take 
place near them before the aggregate product can reach 
a high figure. Pennsylvania will probably increase 
her iron and steel product in the future as fast as 
these new districts. 

Closely following the iron and steel manufactures 
comes the lumber trade, an industry peculiarly Amer- 
can. Since 1850 the value of annual product has 
increased fourfold, the capital employed having ad- 
vanced in nearly the same ratio. In 1880 this in- 
dustry gave employment to one hundred and forty- 
eight thousand hands, who received wages to the 
amount of nearly $32,000,000 (;^6,400,ooo). The pro- 
duct was worth $233,268,729 (;^46,65 3,745). The prin- 
cipal seat of this industry is Michigan, a region 
which fifty years ago had not been invaded by 
the wood-cutter. The capital invested in the lumber 
trade in that State was nearly forty million dollars 
in 1880, or more than one-fifth of the total lumber 
investment of the country. The amount of superior 
timber cut in 1880 in the three principal lumbering 
States, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, was seven 
billion five hundred million feet. This is exclusive 
of many millions of railroad ties, staves, and sets of 
headings out of inferior wood. In the Southern States 



220 Triumphant Democracy, 

more than one billion five hundred million feet of pine 
were cut in 1880; while it was estimated that there 
remained standing not less than two hundred and six- 
teen billion feet. But full statistics of the enormous 
quantities of wood available in the various States are 
unattainable. Texas is said to have twenty-one billion 
feet of loblolly pine, of which sixty-one and a half 
million feet were cut during 1880. At the present rate 
of cutting, the timber area of Michigan, Wisconsin, and 
Minnesota will last, allowing for growth, from twenty 
to twenty-five years ; but that of the South, which is 
four times as great, is said to be ample for an indefinite 
period. Enormous forests are being opened in Wash- 
ington Territory, Oregon, and Northern California. The 
cutting of trees may be conducted more methodically 
in the future than in the past, but there is little danger 
of the supply diminishing. There are vast regions 
in America where the raising of timber is the only 
cultivation possible, and other places where trees can 
be more profitably grown than anything else. This 
will always remain so, so that there need be no appre- 
hension either that the forests will be totally destroyed, 
or that the supply of merchantable lumber will fail. 
The quality and variety of American woods are almost 
too well known to need emphasis. The ash, cherry, 
maple, mahogany, walnut, and many other valuable 
varieties are exported to Europe, frequently cut and 
shaped, ready to be put together as finished work. 



Manufacttires, 



121 



The Vv^ealth of America's forests is illustrated by the 
collection of native woods in the New York Museum 
of Natural History, which comprises more than four 
hundred different varieties. The wealth of the Re- 
public v/ould be but partially estimated if, upon Uncle 
Sam's great estate, we omitted the *' growing timber," 
from the live oak of Southern Florida up to " the huge 
pine, hewn on, not Norwegian, but North-western hills." 

Foundry and machine shop products rank next 
in value. The value placed on these is more than 
$214,000,000 (;^42,8oo,ooo) ; so that the value of the iron 
industries of America, as indicated above, ought to be 
increased by this sum. 

Cotton manufactures have increased at a great rate 
in many lands, but nowhere so rapidly as in America. 
Those of England in 1880 were nearly six times greater 
than in 1830; those of America were eighteen and a 
half times greater. The competition of mother and 
child lands in this important mdustry is briefly shown 
by the following table, which also shows the small 
amount consumed by other countries : 

CONSUMPTION OF COTTON IN MILLION POUNDS. 





1830. 


1840. 


i860. 


1870. 


1880. 


Great Britain, 


250 


454 


1,140 


1,101 


1,404 


United States, 


52 


135 


410 


530 


961 


Germany, 


56 


120 


220 


260 


390 


France, 


87 


no 


215 


250 


340 


Various, 


162 


231 


286 


239 


649 




607 


1,050 


2,271 


2,380 


3.744 



222 Triumphant Democracy. 

It appears from the above that the cotton Industries 
of America have increased nearly three times as fast 
as those of the rest of the world. The mother land 
still leads finely in the race however. Grand, plucky 
little racer ! One dislikes to see a big, overgrown giant 
chasing you with his seven-league boots on; but do 
not be too much discouraged. He is your own son 
and bodes no harm. You taught him of what his 
strain is capable. The prize will still remain in the 
family. You who love primogeniture so dearly (every 
one to his taste) surely cannot grudge your eldest boy 
anything. 

At the beginning of the century, although the cotton 
crop was only one seventy-seventh what it was in 1880, 
only two per cent, of it was manufactured at home, 
as against thirty-one per cent, in 188 1. In this, as in 
many other industries, we see the parent and child 
land in friendly rivalry absorbing the great bulk, and 
leaving the rest of the w^rld nowhere in the race. Thus 
the two Nations combined take two-thirds of the whole, 
and leave but one-third for the rest of the world. The 
capital invested in cotton manufacture in the United 
States in 1880 was $2o8,cxx),ooo (^41,600,000), the num- 
ber of operatives was one hundred and seventy-two 
thousand five hundred and fifty-four, who received 
in wages $42,000,000 (;^8,400,ooo). The value of the 
product exceeded $192,000,000, (nearly ^^40,000,000). 
Compared with the figures of the previous decade, the 



ManufactMres, 223 

capital shows forty-seven per cent, increase, number 
of looms forty-nine per cent, increase, number of oper- 
atives twenty-eight per cent., and cotton consumed 
fifty-eight per cent. It is a noteworthy fact that the 
American method of cotton manufacture is the most 
economical of labor in the world. An American oper- 
ative deals with one-sixth more material than the 
British operative ; one-third more than the German, 
•two and a half times as much as the French or Aus- 
trian, and five times as much as the Russian. This 
may be in part explained by the fact that the propor- 
tion of men is greater in American than in European 
factories ; though the superior nature of American 
machinery is the main cause of difference. The na- 
tive American, and even the acclimatized European, 
is not content to remain in any position which he 
thinks can be as well or better filled by a machine. 
If there is no such machine in existence, he sets 
his wits to work and invents one, and the patent 
laws of the country give him ample protection at a 
merely nominal cost. This is the chief reason why 
America produces more per head than any other 
country. 

The American woollen industry also has expanded 
greatly during recent years. Since i860 it has in- 
creased threefold, an increase six times as great as 
that of Britain, which, during the same period, was 
only fifty per cent. In 1880 the United States were 



224 



Triumphant Democracy, 



hardly behind Britain in product, the total manufao 
tures being as follows : 





Million Pounds. 


Pounds per In- 
habitant. 


Value. 


United Kingdom, . . 
United States, . . . 


338 
320 


9.8 

6.6 


^46,100,000 
43,000,000 



Since 1880 the Republic has no doubt left her 
parent far in the rear. In 1883-4 about three hundred 
and ninety-six million pounds of wool were consumed 
in the United States, and three hundred and twenty 
million pounds of this was grown at home. The wool 
production is now about six times greater than it was 
twenty-five years ago ; and already exportations are 
assuming important figures. Uncle Sam may be des- 
tined soon to clothe, as well as to feed, his European 
l^rother. 

The capital invested in woollen manufacture in 1880 
was about nineteen million sterling. The hands em- 
ployed exceeded eighty-six thousand, who received 
wages to the amount of $26,000,000 (more than ;^5,ooo,- 
000), an average of nearly $300 (^60) each. Although 
betv/een 1870 and 1880 the capital invested increased 
to twenty-one and one-half per cent., the number of 
establishments decreased thirty-one per cent. As ma- 
chiner}' is improved and elaborated, its cost tends to put 
small capitalists out of the competition and to increase 



Man tifactures, "225 

the average size of the manufacturing establishments. 
That great improvement in machinery took place during 
the decade is shown by the fact that the value per 
hand added to the materials by manufacture increased 
seventeen and one-fourth per cent.; and that concen- 
tration of labor into larger establishments occurred, 
is shown by an increase of seventy-six and one-half per 
cent, in the average capital per establishment, and an 
increase of fifty-eight per cent, in number of hands per 
establishment. 

The manufacture of mixed textiles for 1880 reached 
a value of $66,250,000 (;^ 13,250,000). Silk manufac- 
tures employed capital to the amount of $19,000,000 
(i^3, 800,000), and labor to the amount of thirty- 
one thousand hands who received $9,146,705 (^1,829,- 
341) in wages. The net value of materials used was $18,- 
500,000 (^^3,700,000) and value of the products §34,500,- 
000 (;^6,900,ooo). Worsted goods were valued the same 
year at $33,000,000 (ii"6,6oo,ooo) while hosiery and knit 
goods reached $29,000,000 (i^ 5, 800, 000). 

In the carpet trade, which is of recent origin, we have 
another example of the concentration of capital and 
labor in large establishments. Since 1870 the decrease 
in the number of establishments has been marked. Yet 
has the capital nearly doubled, and the product increased 
eighty-three per cent, in the decade. For 1880 the pro- 
duct was worth $21,750,000 (^4,350,000), and consisted 
of twenty-two million yards of two-ply ingrains, nine and 
15 



226 Triumpha7it Democracy, 

one-half million yards of tapestry, four million yards of 
Brussels, and half that quantity of Venetian carpets. 
One is startled to find that more yards of carpet are 
manufactured in and around the city of Philadelphia 
alone than in the whole of Great Britain. It is not 
twenty years since the American imported his carpets, 
and now he makes more at one point than the greatest 
European manufacturing nation does in all its territory. 
Truly the old lands are fast becoming petty little com- 
munities ; their populations so small, their products so 
trifling, in comparison with those of the Giant of the 
West! 

The manufacture of boots and shoes is one of the 
oldest and most important industries of America. It is 
also one of the best developed — developed not simply 
in regard to size, but in perfection of methods. Here 
machinery seems to have reached its culmination. The 
human hand does little but guide the material from 
machine to machine, and the hammering, the stamping, 
and sewing are all done by the tireless energy of steam. 
It is no fiction to say that men put leather into the 
machine at one end, and it comes out a perfect fitting 
boot at the other. By means of such a machine, a man 
can make three hundred pairs of boots in a day, and a 
single factory in Massachusetts turns out as many pairs 
yearly as thirty-two thousand bootmakers in Paris. In 
1880 America had three thousand one hundred of these 
mechanical St. Crispins, making new pedal coverings 



Manufactures. 227 

every four months for fifty million people. The old 
fashioned cobbler with last and '' taching-end " is as 
^surely doomed to extinction as the New Zealand Maori. 
Even the small capitalist who is willing to adopt the 
most approved methods when able, finds himself placed 
hors de combat by his stronger rivals. In 1870 America 
had three thousand one hundred and fifty-one bootmak- 
ing establishments, employing ninty-one thousand seven 
hundred and two men. Ten years later the workmen 
had increased to one hundred and eleven thousand one 
hundred and fifty-two, but the number of establishments 
had fallen to one thousand nine hundred and fifty-nine, 
a decrease of nearly thirty-eight per cent. Even yet 
machinery continues to be improved. In the decade 
ending 1880 the increased number of hands was but 
twenty-one and one-quarter per cent., but the increased 
value of products was forty-one and a half per cent. 
The increase of capital was forty-three and one-quarter 
per cent. How far the concentration of capital is destined 
to go, no one can foretell. The survival of the fittest 
means here the survival of the most economical ; and that 
large establishments are more economical than small 
ones is proved by the non-survival of the latter. It is 
probable that the only limit to the concentration of labor 
is that imposed by the capacity of the directing mind 
which presides over it. 

There are many other industries which claim by 
their importance some mention here ; but lest details 



228 



Trzu77iphant Democracy, 



should become tiresome to the reader there is ap- 
pended, in tabular form, a few particulars of the most 
important industries hitherto unnamed. But even the 
most conscientious reader is hereby specially permitted 
— and advised — to skip this table. The author did not 
make it, you know, and he is only solicitous for the 
text. 



Manufacture. 


Estab- 
lish- 
ments. 


Capital. 


Hands. 


Wages. 


Value of Pro- 
duct. 


Leather Currying, 
Tanning, . . . 
Ship Building, 
Paper, .... 
Glass. .... 
Dyeing & Finishing, 
Sugar & Molasses. 
Printing & Publish- 
ino" 


2,319 

3,105 

2.188 

692 

211 

191 


$16,878,520 
50,222,054 
20,979,874 
46,421,202 
19,844,699 
26,223,981 


11.053 
23,821 

21,345 
24,422 

24,177 


$4,845,413 

9,204,243 

12,713,830 

8,525.355 
9,144,100 


$71,351,297 

113,348,336 

36.800.327 

55,109,914 

21,154.571 

32,297,420 

155,484,915 

90,789,442 
68,640,486 


iii^. .... 
Agricultural Imple- 
nieiits 










Furniture 










68,037,902 

64,951,617 
38.173.658 

209,548,460 

32,004,794 


Carriages & Wag- 
ons 






. • 


• • • 


Drugs & Chemicals, 
Clothing (Men's) 

Ready Made, . 
Clothing (Women's) 

Ready Made, . 






Railroad & Street 
Cars .... 










27.997,591 
22,653,693 
13,863,188 


Hardware 










Sewing Machines, 






• • 


. . . 



In this table the two items which will probably most 
excite surprise, are those which seem to tell us that the 
sobsr-suited male spends six times as much for his 



Manufactures. 229 

clothes as the more gaudily dressed branch of the race. 
The explanation of this is found in the enormous devel- 
opment of ready-made clothing in the country. Let any 
one stop for a moment at the windows of one of these 
establishments, which generally occupy entire squares 
in most of the cities, and notice at what extremely 
low prices quite respectable clothing is offered, and if 
he be a British visitor few sights will more surprise him. 
Prices are not above those in Britain, and the clothing 
is better made ; the material may however not be quite 
so good, for a mixture of inferior stuff is suspected in the 
home product. Still it is excellent and serviceable, and 
is constantly improving in quality. There is seen in 
this branch another development of the wholesale idea, 
which gives America its good and cheap watches and 
many other things. In the manufacture of mens' cloth- 
ing men are divided into classes and a thousand suits 
are cut and sewed by machinery for each class from 
the same material. Only the misshapen man is nov/ 
compelled to be measured and fitted by himself. The 
garments adapted for boys' wear offered by these whole- 
sale manufacturers are so much more varied in style, 
and so much cheaper than can be obtained from smaller 
tailors, that this branch may be said to be entirely 
monopolized by the manufacturers. Prices are lower 
than those prevailing in Britain for similar garments. 
Not only the working classes but all except the few rich 
are fast becoming patrons of these ready-m.ade establish- 



230 Triumphant Democracy, 

ments which, it may be mentioned, do a strictly cash 
business. This in itself is one reason for their low prices, 
and it exerts a decided influence for good upon the 
habits of the poorer people. Here again we have that 
law of concentration which seems inseparable from man- 
ufacturing, the smaller being constantly merged into 
the greater factories. 

When we come to the dress of delightful, vain woman, 
however, we have a total arrest of this concentration. 
Her tastes or whims are so numerous, so diverse, that 
she must express herself in her dress, and sometimes 
very loudly too; still in this we can at least ask the world 
to judge between the monarchy and the Democracy with- 
out fear of the verdict. The American woman of all 
classes sets an example to her monarchical sister in dress. 
The full-blown wife of the local magnate from the provin- 
ces decked out in all thecolors of the rainbow, and appar- 
ently with a ram-rod down her back, which extends high 
through her neck too, and probably divides into two 
prongs midway, one going down each leg to her feet, — 
that spectacle has no compeer upon this side of the water. 
Even the wife of the California miner who has ^'made 
his pile,'* or of the Pennsylvania speculator who has 
"struck oil," seems to submit herself to a tolerable dress- 
maker before she appears in public in New York or 
Washington. Still there is no possibility of success if 
the attempt were made to manufacture a thousand bon- 
nets or dresses of any one pattern; that any other woman 



Manufactures. 231 

had one of these would render the next hideous, posi- 
tively offensive to the esthetic sense of the second pur- 
chaser. The guarantee required by the purchaser of a 
fashionable bonnet apparently is that it can be wor- 
shipped without breaking the commandment. There 
must be nothing like it in the heavens above nor in the 
earth beneath nor in the waters under the earth ; and 
in many cases there is not. For this reason, if it be a 
reason at all, we find the census reporting that men 
spend six times the sum that women do upon clothing. 
Were the receipts known and reported of the thousands 
of small retail dressmakers who supply the principal 
parts of women's dress we should no doubt find these 
figures more than reversed. 

The power used in manufactures in the United 
States is equal to three million four hundred and ten 
thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven horse power 
— a force capable of raising a weight of seventeen billion 
tons one foot high. Of this force sixty-four per cent. 
is steam pov/er and thirty-six per cent, water power. 
The increase of total power between 1870 and 1880 was 
forty-five per cent. In the same time the increase in 
product of manufactures was fifty-eight per cent., 
another sign of improved machinery. The increase 
of power per hand in all branches of manufacture 
amounted to ten per cent., which indicates the extent 
of the transfer from manual to mechanical power 
during that period. 



232 Tritifiipha^it Democracy. 

The transfer is still going on, and man Is ever get- 
ting Nature to work more and more for him. A hun- 
dred years ago she did little but grow his corn, meat, 
and wool. Now she cuts the corn, gathers, binds, 
threshes, grinds, bakes it into bread, and carries it to 
his door. The wool she spins, weaves, and sews into 
garments, and then stops not until she has placed it 
within the future wearer's reach, be he ever so far av/ay. 
Or she will carry him wheresoever his lordly desire may 
lead him. Across continents and under seas she flies 
with his messages. Ever obedient, ever untiring, ever 
ready, she grows more responsive and willing in pro- 
portion as her lord makes more demands upon her. 
Already she has taken to herself the drudgery which 
long burdened man ; and under triumphant Democracy 
she is ever seizing on other work to relieve him, and 
leave his life freer for happiness. In other lands men 
are not so happy. Instead of making conquests over 
nature, they strive for conquests over each other, 
incited thereto by selfish and conceited kings and self- 
styled noblemen. But the end is near. It is probable 
that it is by an industrial conquest feudalism and 
standing armies in Europe are to be overcome ; and 
that has already begun. America, blessed land of 
peace, is inundating the v/orld not only with her pro- 
ducts, but v/ith her gospel of the equality of man as 
man, and the old-time nations will soon be forced to 
divert their energies from war to peaceful work. 



Man iifactures, 233 

The position America has acquired not only as a 
manufacturer of the coarser products but of more artis- 
tic articles is remarkable. In all articles of silverware, 
for instance, no nation competes successfully with her. 
A New York establishment, which dwarfs all other simi- 
lar establishments in the world, carried off the gold 
medal for artistic vv'ork in silver at the Paris Exhibition 
of 1855, and also of 1878 ; also the gold medal from the 
Emperor of Russia. Twenty per cent, of all its enor- 
mous manufacture of silverware is now sold abroad. In 
this branch, as in engraving, the republican workman 
has achieved pre-eminence. This is but the beginning 
of his triumphs in the higher branches of art. Others 
are as certain to follow as the sun is to shine, for the 
manhood and intelligence of the workman, his position 
of equality in the State, must find expression in his 
work. 

We have an interesting example of republican suc- 
cess in another branch of manufacture — that of watches. 
It is not very long since every watch carried by the 
American was imported. To-day America exports 
watches largely to most foreign countries and especially 
to Europe. These indispensable articles were formerly 
made by hand in small factories. Switzerland, that land 
of cheap labor, was the principal seat of the manufac- 
ture. Thirty-five years ago the American conceived the 
idea of making watches by machinery upon a gigantic 
scale. The principal establishment made only five 



234 Triumphant Democracy. 

watches per day as late as 1854. Now thirteen hundred 
per day is the daily task, and six thousand watches per 
month are sent to the London agency. Three other 
similar establishments, conducted upon the same general 
plan, are kept busily employed. In short the Republic 
is now the world's watchmaker. Notwithstanding the 
fact that labor is paid more than double that of Europe, 
the immense product, the superior skill of the workman, 
and the "numerous American inventions connected with 
the business, enable the republican to outstrip all his 
rivals. It will soon be so in all articles which can be 
made of one pattern in great numbers, for in such cases 
the enormous home market of the American takes so 
much more of any article than the home market of any 
other manufacturer that he is enabled to carry on the 
business upon a gigantic scale, and dispose of his surplus 
abroad. In confirmation of this view let us take the 
manufacture of thread, for which the two great firms 
at Paisley, Scotland, are so justly celebrated the world 
over. 

The pioneer firm began operations in Paisley in 1798, 
the other followed in 1820. They began to manufacture 
in the United States in 1866 and 1869 — not twenty years 
ago. Yet their combined capital in works upon this 
side already about equals their capital in Paisley, the 
product of sixty years' growth. In other words, twenty 
years in the RepubHc has equalled sixty in Scotland. In 
twenty years more Clark & Coates will in all probability 



Mamifac hires, 235 

consider their original home works in dear old monar- 
chical Paisley as but a branch of the main stem in the 
great Republic. 

Another illustration of the same character is seen in 
the manufacture of pig-iron. The writer well remembers 
raising a laugh not twenty years ago at the table of one 
of the Scotch iron kings, the Bairds, by prophesying that 
even their enormous product would soon be reached by 
a manufacturing concern in America. Where would the 
laugh be now ? The Bairds do not produce nearly as 
much to-day as the American concern, and next year 
the difference in favor of the republican manufacturer 
will be much greater, as his capacity is constantly 
being increased to meet the swelling demands of the 
new country. So it is in every branch of manufacture, 
so rapidly is the child land dwarfing her illustrious 
mother. One has only to have faith in the Republic. 
She never yet betrayed the head that trusted, or the 
heart that loved her. 

In Mr. Pidgeon's clever book," Old World Questions 
and New World Ansv/ers," which is, upon the whole, 
the best book of its kind that I know of, we find the 
author unerringly placing his finger upon the one se- 
cret of the Republic's success, viz. : the respect in which 
labor is held. If I wished to indicate one of the sharp- 
est contrasts between men in the world, and few will 
deny my right to judge here, I should say that which 
exists between the artisan in monarchical Britain and 



236 Triumphant Democracy, 

republican America. I echo every word Mr. Pidgeon 
says: 

" Gloze it over as we may, there is a great gulf fixed between 
the ideas of Old and New England on this radical question of the 
dignity of work. Our industrial occupations consist, speaking 
generally, of mere money-spinning. The places where, and the 
people by whom, we carry them on, are cared for economically, 
and that is all. It is not in our business, but by our "position," 
that we shine in the eyes of ourselves and our neighbors. The 
social code of this country drives, yearly, numbers of young men, 
issuing from our public schools and universities, either into the 
over-crowded learned professions or into government clerkships, 
whose narrow round of irresponsible duties benumbs originality, 
and weakens self-reliance. Capable, educated girls are pining for 
a " career " in England, while posts, even the most important, are 
filled in New England by " young ladies," the equals of ours in 
everything which that phrase denotes, and their superiors in all the 
qualities that are born of effort and self-help. It is no one's fault, 
and I am not going to rail at the inevitable. We were originally 
a feudal country, and cannot escape the influence of our traditions. 
The man who does service for another was a ' villein ' in the 
feudal times, and is an ' inferior ' now ; just as a man of no occu- 
pation is a 'gentleman,' and a governess a * person.' Use has 
made us unconscious of the fact that the ' dignity of work ' is a 
mere phrase in our mouths, while it blinds us to the loss of 
national energy, which avenges outraged labor. 

" Let us look to it, while the battle of free trade rages across 
the Atlantic, as rage it soon will, that we import some American 
readiness and grip into our board-rooms and offices, some sense of 
the dignity of labor mto our workshops." 



Mamtfactttres, 237 

This writer truthfully gives the facts, but into the 
causes of this sense of the dignity of labor in the 
Republic, and its absence in the Monarchy, he has not 
ventured to seek. Let me supply this lack. If you 
found a State upon the monarchical idea which neces- 
sarily carries with it an aristocracy, by so much more 
as you exalt this royal family and aristocracy you inev- 
itably degrade all who are not of these classes. That is 
clear. If at the pinnacle you place people who are 
exempt from honest labor and despise it, whether such 
labor be that rendered by ministers, physicians, law- 
yers, teachers, or other professional men, or trades- 
men or mechanics ; if you create a court from which 
people in trade, and artisans, are excluded ; if you 
support a monarch who declines to have one in trade 
or a wage receiving man presented to her, thus entail- 
ing upon honest labor the grossest insult, what can be 
the result of the system but a community in which the 
dignity of labor has not only no place but one in which, 
as in Britain, labor is actually looked down upon ! This 
is the very essence of the monarchical idea. 

The Queen of Great Britain grossly insults labor 
every moment of her life by declining to recognize it. 
And all her entourage^ from the Duke who walks 
backwards before 'Hhe Lord's anointed" for four 
thousand a year, down or up to the groom of the stole 
— whatever that may be — necessarily cherish the same 
contempt for those who lead useful lives of labor. 



238 Triumphant Democracy. 

Mr. Pidgeon would cure this evil of his country by 
giving a better education to the people. So far, so 
good, but until this educated people goes to the root of 
the evil and sweeps away the present foundation upon 
which their government rests and founds in its place a 
government resting upon the equality of the citizen, he 
may legislate from June to January, year after year, 
and labor will still hold no honored place in the State. 
How can it ever be even respected so long as a mon- 
arch and a court and an aristocracy despise and insult it. 

" Nature rejects the monarch, not the man ; 
The subject not the citizeji j for kings 
And subjects, mutual foes, for ever play 
A losing game into each other's hand, 
Whose stakes are vice and misery.'' 

Never will the British artisan rival the American 
until from his system are expelled the remains of 
serfdom and into his veins is instilled the pure blood of 
exalted manhood. Ah, Mr. Pidgeon ! you should 
know that before you can have an intelligent, self- 
respecting, inventive artisan, like the American, the 
State must first make him a man. 

Of course we hear the response to all this from the 
ostrich class : Britons have done pretty well, have they 
not ? So far they have managed not only to hold 
their own in the world, but to successfully invade many 
provinces naturally belonging to others. Have not the 
British race come out ahead ? Granted, and why ? 



Ma n 2cfactu res. 239 

Because until recently they have had as competing races 
those less free, and therefore less men than themselves. 
Compare a Briton and his political liberties with a Ger- 
man, or with any Continental race and the law I indi- 
cate receives confirmation. The freer the citizen, the 
grander the national triumphs. Who questions that 
the overthrow of the doctrine of the divine right of 
kings and the supreme authority of Parliament have 
not exerted a powerful influence upon the national 
character. And when a new race appears which enjoys 
political equality, shall the law not hold good, and the 
prize fall to the freest and therefore to the best man ? 
And this is precisely what is going on before our eyes. 
Will any competent judge of the two countries upon 
this vital point dispute the immense superiority of the 
republican workman ? Will not Mr. Howard of Bedford, 
for instance, or Mr. Lowthian Bell, or Mr. Windsor 
Richards, or Mr. Edward Martin — all of whom have in- 
vestigated the subject — will they not tell their fellow- 
countrymen as I tell them, and as Mr. Pidgeon tells them, 
that the Citizen leads the subject. The theory of the 
equal status of the workingman in the State here lies at 
the root of his superiority, both as a citizen and as a 
skilled workman. We find that in handling a shovel 
(which few native Americans do), the British man 
in his cool climate can do more work than his fellow- 
countryman can do, or at least than he does here ; but 
when we come to educated skilled labor, the aver- 



240 Trmmphant Democracy, 

age Briton Is not in the race. Nor will he be until he 
too is subject to no man, but the proud citizen of a 
commonwealth founded upon political equality. The 
stuff is in him, but the laws of his country stifle it at 
his birth, and prevent its proper development all the 
years of his life. 

The struggle for existence has already begun afresh, 
this time other weapons than the spear and sword. 
European nations must rid themselves of the v/eight 
they now carry if they would not fall further and 
further behind in the race. The people must first take 
their political rights, and secure perfect equality under 
the laws. This obtained, the rest is easy, for the 
people of all countries are pacific and bear nothing 
but good will to each other. Where ill will has grown 
it is the work of hereditary rulers and military classes, 
not responsible to the masses. From the jealousies 
and personal ambitions of these, the people are hap- 
pily free, and hence from their advent to power there 
must come a rapid diversion of force from international 
war into the peaceful channels of industrial development. 
The reign of the Democracy means ultimately no less 
than the reign of peace on earth, among men good will. 



CHAPTER XL 

MINING. 

** Deep in unfathomable mines 
Of never-failing skill, 
He treasures up his vast designs 
And works his sovereign will." 

In preceding chapters the superlative form of ad- 
jectives has been so often applied to America when 
contrasted with other lands, that many a foreign reader, 
who now for the first time realizes the magnitude and 
greatness of the Republic, may not unnaturally begin 
to feel dubious about it all. He may be inclined to 
believe that it is not a veritable nation to which such 
magnificent attributes are ascribed, but some fabled land 
of Atlantis. Nevertheless it is all real and true. The 
Republic is surely, as we have already seen, the largest, 
most populous, wealthiest civilized nation in the world, 
and also the greatest agricultural, pastoral, and manu- 
facturing nation. And now we have one more claim to 
make — it is the greatest mining nation as well. Greatest 
on the surface of the soil, as she undoubtedly is, her 
supremacy below the surface is yet more incontestible. 
Over every part of the vast continent Nature has 

lavished her bounties in a profusion almost wasteful, 
i6 



242 Triumphant Deinoc7^acy, 

Beneath fields of waving corn, ripening in a perfect 
climate, are layers upon layers of mineral wealth. De- 
posits of gold, silver, coal, iron, copper are found in 
quantities unknown elsewhere, and the rocks yield 
every year rivers of oil. To crov/n her bounty and aid 
in its utilization, and, as if in pursuance of the law 
*' To him that hath shall be given," Nature has lately 
blessed her with a gift as remarkable as it is rare — an 
agent rich in beneficial influences, and helpful to a 
degree which renders every other natural gift prosaic in 
comparison — natural gas, a fluid distilled by nature 
deep in the earth and stored in her own vast gasome- 
ters, requiring only to be led into workshops and under 
boilers to do there the work of a thousand giants. 

Let me describe this new wonder first. Seven years 
ago a company was drilling for petroleum at Murrays- 
ville, near Pittsburgh. A depth of one thousand three 
hundred and twenty feet had been reached when .the 
drills were thrown high into the air, and the derrick 
broken to pieces and scattered around by a tremendous 
explosion of gas, which rushed with hoarse shriekings 
into the air, alarming the population for miles around. 
A light was applied, and immediately there leaped into 
life a fierce, dancing demon of fire, hissing and swirling 
around with the wind, and scorching the earth in a wide 
circle around it. Thinking it was but a temporary out- 
burst preceding the oil, men allowed this valuable fuel 
to waste for five years. Coal in that region cost only 



Mining. 243 

two or three shillings per ton, and there was little in- 
ducement to sink capital in attempts to supersede it 
with a fuel which, though cheaper, might fail as sud- 
denly as it had arisen. But as the years passed, and 
the giant leaped and danced as madly as at first, a 
company was formed to provide for the utilization of 
the gas. It was conducted in pipes under the boilers 
of iron works, where it burned without a particle of 
smoke. Stokers and firemen, and all the laborers who 
had been required to load and unload coal, became 
superfluous. Boring began in other districts, and soon 
around Pittsburgh were twenty gas wells, one yielding 
thirty million cubic feet a day. A single well has fur- 
nished gas equal to twelve hundred tons of coal a day. 
Numerous lines of pipes, aggregating six hundred miles, 
now convey the gas from the wells to the manufactur- 
ing centres of Pittsburgh and Alleghany City and their 
suburbs. The empty coal bunkers are being white- 
washed ; and where in some works one hundred and 
twenty coal-begrimed stokers worked like black demons 
in Hades feeding the fires, one man now walks about 
in cleanly idleness, his sole care that of watching 
the steam and water-guages. The erstwhile " Smoky 
City " is now getting a pure atmosphere ; and one 
would little suspect that the view from the cliffs above 
the Monongahela River included the thousand hitherto 
smoky furnaces of the Iron City. Private residences in 
Pittsburgh are supplied with natural gas, and all heat- 



244 Truimphant Democracy, 

ing and cooking are done with this cheap fuel. Already 
ten thousand tons of coal per day are displaced by 
it, and slack, which even before the application of 
natural gas was worth only three shillings per ton in 
Pittsburgh, is now almost worthless. At present gas 
wells in and around Pittsburgh are so numerous as to 
be counted by hundreds. The number of companies 
chartered to supply natural gas in Pennsylvania up to 
February 5, 1884, was one hundred and fifty, represent- 
ing a capital stock of many millions. Since that date 
numerous other charters have been granted. More 
than sixty wells have been drilled at Erie, Penn. Gas 
has also been found in small quantities in the States of 
Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Ala- 
bama, Kansas, Dakota, and California. It is used for 
manufacturing purposes upon a small scale, in eight 
towns in New York, in twenty-four towns in Pennsyl- 
vania, and in five in Ohio, but so far the region around 
Pittsburgh is the only one in which the much-desired 
fuel has been found in abundance. New uses are con- 
stantly being discovered. Glass is made purer by means 
of the gas, the covered pots formerly used in the fur- 
naces being found unnecessary. Iron and steel plates 
are cleaned and prepared for tinning by passing a cur- 
rent of gas over them while red-hot. The old process 
of pickling in acid solutions caused partial corrosion 
of the plates, which required to be carefully cleaned 
from the acid. It is also useful in cleansing deHcate 



Mining, 245 

fabrics. The dephosphorization of Iron through the 
agency of natural gas is being attempted, with partial 
success. The attempts, however, have resulted in the 
formation of carbon, which has been found suitable for 
electric light carbons. In every department of industry 
discoveries are constantly being made which, if not so 
important as those named, are yet of great value. The 
gas at present running to waste within piping distance 
of Pittsburgh is estimated at seventy million cubic feet 
per day ! 

Closely allied to natural gas is natural oil or petro- 
leum, for gas is probably the distilled product of the oil, 
forced by subterranean heat and pressure out of the car- 
bonaceous deposits which abound throughout Pennsyl- 
vania. Though rock-oil was known to the early Chal- 
deans, and is referred to by Herodotus, Pliny, and other 
ancient writers, it was not utilized for manufacturing 
purposes until 1847, when Young, of Glasgow, made lub- 
ricating oil from petroleum obtained from Derbyshire, 
England. Then began in England and America the 
distillation of oil from coal ; and in 1 860 there were in the 
United States not less than forty factories producing 
about five hundred barrels per day. But these were 
doomed to speedy extinction; for in the preceding year 
a company had been formed in Pennsylvania to drill for 
the oil which was seen oozing in various places, from the 
river banks and floating on the water. The Indians, by 
spreading blankets over the surface, used to collect small 



246 Triumphant Democracy, 

quantities of this oil to mix with their war-paint and for 
medicinal purposes. Crude petroleum, under the name 
of Seneca oil, had, so late as thirty years ago, the reputa- 
tion of a universal curative. The quack advertisements 
which set forth the virtues of this medicine began: 

"The healthful balm, from nature's secret spring, 
The bloom of health and life to man will bring; 

As from her depths the magic liquid flows. 
To calm our sufferings and assuage our woes.*' 

It sold then for $2 (8j) per bottle. Alas for human 
credulity ! Since the oil, which once cured everything, 
brings but one dollar per barrel it has lost all virtue, 
and cures nothing. 

The first drilling in Pennsylvania resulted in a flow 
of ten barrels a day, which was- sold for fifty cents a 
gallon. A period of wild- excitement followed. Wells 
were sunk all over the country. Some were failures, but 
oil was often reached. Of one well it is recorded that it 
yielded four hundred and fifty thousand barrels of oil 
in a little more than two years, while another is said to 
have given not less than half a million barrels in a twelve- 
month. An oil property. Storey Farm, Oil Creek, with 
which I was intimately connected, has a remarkable 
history. When, about twenty-two years ago, in com- 
pany Avith some friends I first visited this famous 
well, the oil was running into the creek, where a few 
flat-bottomed scows lay filled with it, ready to be floated 



Mining. 247 

down to the Alleghany River upon an agreed-upon day- 
each week, Vv^hen the creek was flooded by means of a 
temporary dam. This was the beginning of the natural 
oil business. We purchased the farm for $40,000 
(;^8,ooo), and so small was our faith in the abiHty 
of the earth to yield for any considerable time the 
hundred barrels per day which the property was then 
producing, that we decided to make a pond capable of 
holding one hundred thousand barrels of oil, Avhich 
we estimated would be worth, when the supply ceased, 
$1,000,000 (i^200,ooo). Unfortunately for us the pond 
leaked fearfully ; evaporation also caused much loss, 
but we continued to run oil in to make the losses 
good day after day until several hundred thousand 
barrels had gone in this fashion. Our experience with 
the farm may be worth reciting. Its value rose to 
$5,000,000 (^1,000,000); that is, the shares of the com- 
pany sold in the market upon this basis ; and one year it 
paid in cash dividends $1,000,000 (;^200,ooo) — rather a 
good return upon an investment of eight thousand 
pounds. So great was the yield in the district that in two 
years oil became almost valueless, often selling in bulk 
as low as thirty cents per barrel, and not unfrequently 
it was suffered to run to v/aste as utterly worthless. 
But as new uses wxre found for the oil, prices rose again, 
and to remove the difficulty of high freights, pipes were 
laid, first for short distances, and then to the seaboard, a 
distance of about three hundred miles. Through these 



248 Triumphant Democracy. 

pipes, of which six thousand two hundred miles have 
been laid, the oil is now pumped from two thousand one 
hundred wells. It costs only ten cents to pump a barrel 
of oil to the Atlantic. The present daily yield of the oil- 
producing district is about seventy thousand barrels, and 
the supply, instead of diminishing, goes on increasing 
yearly. More than thirty-eight million barrels of thirty- 
three gallons each were in store one day in November, 
1884. The value of petroleum and its products ex- 
ported up to January, 1884, exceeds in value $625,- 
ooo,cxx) (i^ 1 2 5, 000,000). 

In the Pittsburgh district we find another mineral 
deposit of immense value, a remarkable coal seam of 
great thickness, which makes a coke of such quality 
as to render it famous throughout the continent. It 
is so easily mined that a man and a boy can dig 
and load nearly thirty tons in ten hours. In Chicago, 
and in St. Louis, in the blast furnaces of Pittsburgh 
and in the silver and lead mines of Utah, this coke, 
^'compact, silvery and lustrous," is an important factor in 
the metallic industries of the Republic. It gives Pitts- 
burgh advantages which cause it to rank as an iron pro- 
ducer in advance of towns situated on the very beds of 
iron-stone. Well may the Iron City burst into song : 

" I am monarch of all the forges, 

I have solved the riddle of fire ; 
The amen of nature to need of man 

Echoes at my desire. 



Mining, 249 

I search with the subtle soul of flame 

The heart of the rocky earth, 
And hot from my anvils the prophecies 

Of the miracle years blaze forth. 

*' I am swart with the soot of my chimneys, 

I drip with the sweat of toil; 
I quell and scepter the savage wastes 

And charm the curse from the soil. 
I fling the bridges across the gulfs 

That hold us from the To Be, 
And build the roads for the bannered march 

Of crowned Humanity." 

In the same lucky State of Pennsylvania are deposits 
of valuable anthracite coal, which, though including in 
all an area of only four hundred and seventy square 
miles, are of immense thickness. These deposits, which 
in parts vary from fifty to seven hundred feet thick, and 
average about seventy feet, make this wonderful region 
of greater value than many coal fields of ten times 
the area. Near Pottsville there is a thickness of three 
thousand three hundred feet of coal measures. The 
cubic contents of the anthracite coal field, allowing 
fifty per cent, for loss in working, is estimated at 
thirteen billion one hundred and eighty million five 
hundred and thirty-five thousand tons of merchant- 
able coal-a store capable of furnishing the present 
consumption, or thirty million tons per year, for 
four hundred and thirty-nine years. By that time 



250 Triumphant Democracy. 

men will probably be burning the hydrogen of water, or 
be fully utilizing the solar rays, or the tidal energy, or 
using some undiscovered means of profitably getting 
heat and power by diverting natural phenomena. They 
will probably not feel the want of anthracite coal. At 
present, however, this fuel is especially precious on ac- 
count of its hardness, density, and purity, which render 
it available for iron smelting without coking, while to its 
freedom from smoke is due the pure atmosphere of 
Eastern American cities. The view from Brooklyn 
Bridge would delight a Londoner, used to the murky 
atmosphere of the English metropolis. He v/ould see 
the roofs and chimneys of two great cities for miles, but 
hardly a particle of smoke to mar the purity of the 
bright air, or sully a sky which rivals that of Italy in 
clearness. 

In twenty-five States and Territories, distributed all 
over the continent, north, south, east, and west, from 
Alabama to Rhode Island and thence to California and 
Oregon, coal is now being mined, while it is known to 
exist in several others. The future value of this exten- 
sive distribution of coal can be but vaguely estimated ; 
but taken in connection with the fact that iron ore is 
found in nearly every State of the Union and is mined 
in twenty-nine of them, it is clear that its value in the 
near future will be enormous. A vast expansion is 
taking place in the coal industry : in 1850 the total prod- 
uct was but seven and a quarter million tons; in 1880 it 



Mining, 



251 



was seventy-one million tons, and in 1884 it reached 
ninety-seven and a half million tons. Including the 
local and colliery consumption the figures for 1884 
approximate one hundred and seven million tons. That 
of Great Britain for the same year was one hundred and 
sixty million tons. The rest of the world produced 
only one hundred and thirty million tons ; so that 
mother and child lands together produced more than 
twice as much coal as all the world beside. 

To the world's stock of gold America has contribu- 
ted, according to Mulhall, more than fifty per cent. In 
1880 he estimated the amount of gold in the world at 
ten thousand three hundred and fifty-five tons, worth 
$7,240,000,000 (;^ 1,448,000,000). Of this the New World 
contributed five thousand three hundred and two tons, 
or more than half. Australia and the United States 
have competed keenly during the last thirty years for 
precedence, but it remains with the Republic. The 
struggle is thus indicated : 



MILLIONS STERLING. 



United States, . 
Australia, 



1851-60. 


1861-70. 


1871-80. 


102 

104 


98 

82 . 


70 

72 



THIRTY 
YEARS. 



270 
258 



In 1 88 1-2-3 the Republic was leading by $4,000,000 
(;^8oo,ooo) per year. The world's production of gold 
during the above thirty years was worth $3,930,000,000 



252 



Triumphant Democracy, 



(;^786,ooo,ooo) ; so that Australia and America pro- 
duced together about five-sevenths of the whole. The 
yearly production of gold in the United States since 
1880 has averaged $31,250,000 (;^6,2 50,000), being one- 
third of the total product of the world. 

Of silver America has contributed to the world's 
supply even in larger ratio than of gold. Of the one 
hundred and ninety-three thousand tons estimated to 
have been produced during the last five hundred years, 
the Americas contributed one hundred and sixty-two 
thousand two hundred tons, or eighty-four per cent. 
Though this was mainly the product of Mexico and 
Peru, the United States of late years have come to the 
front. The following table gives the world's produc- 
tion since 1850 : 



MILLIONS STERLING. 



Spanish America, 
United Slates . 
Germany and Austria, 
Various, . 



1851-60. 


1861-70. 


1871-80. 


49 
10 


64 
16 


70 
68 


15 


18 


20 


7 


12 


22 


81 


no 


180 



THIRTY 
YEARS. 



94 

53 
41 



371 



The difference between sixteen and sixty-eight marks 
the increase of silver-mining in the Republic which 
has taken place in ten years — an increase almost in- 
credible. One of the most remarkable veins of metal 



Mining, 253 

known is the Comstock Lode in Nevada. This lode, 
to which Mark Twain has given a European celebrity 
by his description in '' Roughing It," is of great width, 
and extends over five miles. It is as if Oxford Street 
and Uxbridge Road were filled to the house-tops with 
rich gold and silver ore from Holborn Viaduct to Acton. 
In fourteen years this single vein yielded $180,000,000 
(^36,000,000). In one year, 1876, the product of the 
lode was $18,000,000 (^3,600,000) in gold and $20,500,- 
000 (i^4, 100,000) in silver — a total of $38,500,000 
(;^7, 700,000). Here, again, is something which the 
world never saw before ! Since 1880 the annual product 
of silver in the United States has averaged $46,200,000 
(ii'Q, 240,000). If the present rate of increase is main- 
tained until 1890, the next decade will show a hundred 
million sterling as the Republic's addition to the silver 
of the world. The increase from sixteen to sixty-eight 
in ten years is remarkable ; but it is more wonderful 
that the rate should be maintained. 

Am^erica also leads the world in copper, the United 
States and Chili contributing nearly one-half the 
world's supply. The product of the Republic has 
increased sixfold since i860. In that year the total 
product was five thousand three hundred and eighty- 
eight tons ; in 1870 twelve thousand six hundred tons; 
in 1880 twenty-seven thousand tons, and the yield for 
1884 was no less than sixty-three thousand five hundred 
and fifty-five tons ! There's revolution for you ! From 



254 Trnimpha^it Democracy, 

six hundred and fifty tons in 1850 to sixty-three thou- 
sand ! On the south shore of Lake Superior this metal 
is found almost pure in masses of all sizes up to many 
tons in weight. It was used by the native Indians, and 
traces of their rude mining operations are still visible. 
One mine in this district, known as the Calumet and 
Hecla, produces nearly thirty per cent, of the whole 
copper output of the United States — about eighteen 
thousand tons in 1884. It paid its owners $4,000,000 
(^800,000) for two years' dividends. Copper mining is 
carried on in twenty-one States and Territories, and ore 
has been found in several others. This industry is 
rapidly developing, and doubtless before the next cen- 
sus the annual output will be double what it is now. 

In 1870 the importation of lead into the United 
States amounted to forty-two thousand tons. In ten 
years this had fallen to four thousand tons. Then the 
tables were turned and the United States, instead of 
importing lead, began to send it abroad, although in 
small quantities. In 1884 it was exported to the 
amount of twenty-six thousand pounds. This implies 
a rapid development of lead mining in the Republic. 
Indeed, in 1880, America was the first lead producing 
country in the world, though Mulhall places her slightly 
behind Spain. The progress of the industry is shown 
in the following table, which also indicates the stages 
of the competition : 



Mining, 



255 





METRIC TONS. 




1830. 


1850. 


1880. 


1883. 


Great Britain, 

Spain, 

United States (Mulhall), . 

United States (Whitney & Caswell), . 


48,000 

23,000 

3-700 

8,000 


55,000 
27,000 
36,000 
22,000 


51,000 
92,000 
89,000 
97,825 


39.817 
127,000 

140,000 



The difference in the two American estimates for 1880 
is probably due to the fact that the census statistics of 
the production of lead are only partial. In Utah, for 
example, which is not reported as producing any, lead is 
mined and smelted in connection with silver. Its pro- 
duct in 1880 was fifteen thousand net tons, and that of 
Nevada sixteen thousand six hundred and fifty-nine. 
The product of Colorado alone was thirty-five thou- 
sand six hundred and seventy-eight tons. The lead 
district of the upper Mississippi and of eastern Missouri 
jointly produced twenty-seven thousand six hundred 
and ninety tons, vv^hile another district of south-western 
Missouri and southeastern Kansas is reported to have 
produced twenty-two thousand six hundred and twenty- 
five tons the previous year. So that even the larger es- 
timate would probably have to be increased, were accu- 
rate figures at hand. Caswell's estimate for 1884 is 
one hundred and forty thousand tons, of which one 
hundred and twenty thousand tons are de-silverized 
lead. Lead is produced m thirteen States, mainly in 
the West. Colorado wears a leaden rim to her silver 



256 Trhimphant Democracy. 

crown, she alone producing twice as much as the lead 
mines of Great Britain. Indeed, a single mine at Lead- 
ville produces two-thirds as much as all Great Britain, 
although lead is here only a by-product of silver min- 
ing. The Horn Silver Mine in Utah produced, in 
1884, forty thousand tons of ore, averaging thirty and 
nine one-hundredths per cent, of lead and thirty-nine 
ounces of silver, the latter alone nearly paying all the 
expenses of extraction, treatment, and marketing. Here 
again the owners got a million dollars for a year's divi- 
dends. The world's production of lead for 1883 was 
four hundred and fifty-four thousand tons. Of this 
more than half was produced by two countries — the 
Republic and Spain. 

Zinc is now produced in America in large quanti- 
ties. Previous to 1873 the amount obtained was very 
small; but in 1880 the year's product greatly exceeded 
that of Great Britain, being twenty-three thousand two 
hundred and thirty-nine tons, against fifteen thousand 
nine hundred and forty-seven. In 1884 the domestic 
product had increased to thirty-five thousand tons. 
The import of zinc into the Republic has fallen off in 
a corresponding* degree, being but one-fifth what it 
was in 1873, while prices have been reduced about 
eighty per cent. The Republic already ranks third 
among the zinc producers of the world. 

The mineral resources of the United States comprise 
also quicksilver, the ores of chrome and nickel, cobalt, 



Mining. 257 

platinum, Indium, antimony, arsenic, etc., etc. Salt de- 
posits are worked in various States, and sulphur, graph- 
ite, and gypsum abound. Mineral phosphates are found 
in South Carolina, where they are worked into fertilizers 
for domestic consumption. Granite, marble, sandstone, 
and other fine building stones and roofing slates are 
abundant, and form the objects of large and profitable 
industries. 

The treasures of earth have been among the most 
important elements in the growth and prosperity of 
the Republic. Besides great and direct gains, there 
have been many indirect benefits resulting from the 
opening up and settlement of extensive regions. Large 
towns have sprung up with magic growth in the wilder- 
ness. Where miners settled, agriculturists and me- 
chanics soon came to minister to their wants. In 
this way some of the richest and largest towns of the 
West originated. San Francisco is the most notable 
instance. A later example is furnished by Leadville, 
which ten years ago was the centre of a barren, unin- 
habited region, the haunt of the catamount and grizzly 
bear. Now it is a town of wide streets and handsome 
stone buildings, court-house, hospitals, churches, schools, 
and all the attributes of a large civilized city. The sur- 
rounding district is populated by agriculturists. In ten 
short years the discovery of a rich lead vein has trans- 
formed the wilderness into an Arcadia. Where, a few 
years ago, the only sounds heard were the growl of the 
17 



258 Triumpha7it Democracy, 

coyote or the occasional whoop of the savage, the 
busy hum of a city, the lowing of cattle, or the beat of 
a steam crusher now wake the echoes of the hills. 

The Republic seems to stand like the variety shop- 
keeper in Colorado, who put up in his shop in a flaming 
placard, '' If you don't see what you want just ask for it." 
We have only to want a mineral and seek for it, when 
nature places it before us. A few years ago there was 
not a pound of speigel (so essential for the Bessemer 
steel process) made in the United States. We had 
not the proper ores, we said. A hundred thousand 
tons were used every year and every ton was imported. 
To-day v/e have the ores from Lake Superior, from Vir- 
ginia, from Arkansas, and all the speigel v/e need can be 
made at home. So too with ferro-manganese. This is 
a metallic substance as essejitial for the manufacture of 
mild steel as speigel is for steel rails. Eighty dollars a 
ton was paid by our manufacturers up to last year, 
and every ton came across the sea. We needed the 
precious ore, and, presto, a rich mine appears in Vir- 
ginia and another in Arkansas. It has been tested and 
the former is pronounced to be the richest and purest in 
the world. '*It will make ferro-manganese," said our 
manager. " Sure ?" " Yes, sure. " '' Try it." Result : 
the Republic may be shut off to-morrow from foreign 
speigel and ferro-manganese and scarcely know it. 
Within her own broad bosom she has all the requisites 
for the manufacture of any kind of steel. 



Milting, 259 

Tin is the only metal she now lacks. But let no 
one be surprised to read some day the announcement 
that all other deposits of tin in the world sink into 
insignificance compared to those just discovered in 
America. But even without this one precious mineral 
my readers will surely conclude from the story of 
the mineral treasures of the Republic which I have 
attempted to tell that this is indeed the favored 
land. 

That the reader may the better be enabled to esti- 
mate the extent of the enormous mineral treasures of 
the Republic, I will summarize in order the several 
principal deposits and contrast them with those of each 
country which ranks next to America in mineral wealth. 
We begin with the black diamond, coal, as the mineral 
which perhaps lies closest to the root of industrial suc- 
cess. How then is the Democracy provided with this 
indispensable treasure ? 

Well, — the coal area of the United States com- 
prises three hundred thousand square miles ; Great 
Britain's coal field twelve thousand. The whole of the 
world has but four hundred thousand square miles. 
The Republic therefore has twenty-five times the field 
of the parent land ; and, I am almost ashamed to con- 
fess it, she has three-quarters of all the coal area of the 
earth. For shame ! to leave only one-quarter for all 
the rest of the world ! In good round Scotch I say 
to her: "The deil's greedy but ye're misleard." So 



26o Triumphant Democracy, 

it is, my readers — but ''as sure 's death we canna 
help it." 

Let us see about the precious metals. Gold and 
silver have I none, was not written of this giant. She 
has contributed to the stock of gold in the world, es- 
timated at ten thousand three hundred tons, more than 
one-half the whole. Australia has given her a close 
race during the past thirty years, but the Republic re- 
mains ahead. 

In silver the Republic begins to challenge even the 
fabulous mines of Mexico and Bolivia, still classed as 
Spanish America, from which most*of the silver supply 
of the world has hitherto been drawn. In the ten 
years between 1850 and i860, these mines furnished 
more than half of all the silver produced. In the next 
decade, i860 to 1870, it was still the same, $320,000,000 
(^64,000,000) being their product, while the total was 
but $550,000,000 (;^ 1 10,000,000). In these two decades 
the infant Republic produced only $50,000,000 (;^io,- 
000,000) and $80,000,000 (;^ 1 6,000,000) respectively. 
But with the discovery of the silver mines of Nevada 
and Colorado, which lay till then in the untrodden 
wilderness, the United States came rapidly to the 
front, and in the last decade, 1870 to 1880, she shows 
$340,000,000 (;^68,ooo,ooo) as against the $350,000,000 
(;^70,ooo,ooo) of all the Spanish-America mines together. 
Germany and Austria produced about $100,000,000 
(;^20,ooo,ooo), and various countries as much more. 



Mining, 261 

Since 1880, the race is more and more to the Republic, 
for the average product of her silver mines since then 
exceeds §46,250,000 (;^9,2 50,000) per annum, one-third 
of the silver production of the world. 

Leaving the ''yellow geordie " and the ''white 
monie," as Bassanio did, let us see how it fares with 
the humbler, dingy, dull copper — the bawbee. The 
world's production of copper in 1883 was exactly two 
hundred thousand tons. Of this, America supplied 
more than one-fourth, fifty-two thousand tons ; the 
whole of Europe gave only seventy-one thousand tons ; 
Chili but forty-one thousand tons. 

Is it not amazing that one nation should in itself 
have each of the three metals in such abundance ! Aus- 
tralia has gold, and the Republic says to her, " So have 
I in value greater than yours." Mexico and Bolivia call, 
*' Here stand we with the dazzling mines of Peru," and 
the Republic answers, " Our silver mines exceed those 
treasures." Chili has been the main source of the copper 
supply, and now the Republic leads her in her own 
special field. 

It was not copper after all that Bassanio preferred, 
but the dull leaden casket. Let us see then about this 
valuable article. The world produced in 1883 four 
hundred and fifty-four thousand metric tons, and of 
this the Republic contributed one hundred and forty 
thousand, more than a fourth. Spain comes next to 
her with one hundred and twenty-seven thousand, fol- 



262 Triumphant Democracy, 

lowed by Germany with ninty-five thousand. Britain 
figures here for forty thousand tons, not a bad showing 
for so small an area. 

In zinc, the Republic is making fast strides. Its 
manufacture may be said to have begun about 1870, 
when only seven thousand tons were produced. The 
product in 1884 reached thirty-eight thousand tons ; the 
British product in 1883 was twenty-three thousand 
tons, but either of these is insignificant compared with 
Germany's contribution, one hundred and sixteen 
thousand tons. We shall see how long it will take the 
young giant to forge alongside of his great German 
competitor in this branch of manufactures ; twenty 
years may do it, or even less. 

Thus the Republic supplies one-fourth of the lead, 
one-fourth of the copper, one-third of the silver, one- 
half of the gold of the world. Monster of the Pactolean 
stream, must everything you possess and everything 
you touch turn to gold, that you may dominate the 
earth ? 

Thank God, these treasures are in the hands of an 
intelligent people, the Democracy, to be used for the 
general good of the masses, and not made the spoils of 
monarchs, courts, and aristocracy, to be turned to the 
base and selfish ends of a privileged hereditary class. 
The weakest nation may rest secure, Canada on the 
north, and Chili on the south, for the nature of a gov- 
ernment of the people is to abjure conquest, to protect 



Mining, 263 

the weak neighbor from foreign aggression if need be ; 
never to molest, but to dwell in peace and loving neigh- 
borliness with all. The Republic is, indeed, the child of 
covetous, grasping, ever-warring Britain, but being re- 
lieved of monarchical institutions and the militarism 
which is their necessary following, she has thrown away 
the rude sword and scorns to conquer except through 
love. It is a proud record for the Democracy that the 
giant of the Western Continent is not feared by the 
pigmies which surround him, but is regarded with affec- 
tion and admiration in the day of prosperity, and as a 
sure and potent defender, upon whom they can safely 
call in the day of trouble. 

Had the monarchy retained possession of the coun- 
try how different must have been the result. Added 
to the inevitable wars of an aristocratic and military 
system, there would have been the hate of republics 
as republics, for no royalist ever would let a republic 
live if he could help it ; for though not generally wise, 
they are not quite so devoid of reasoning self-interest as 
to court self-extinction. Every weak nation upon the 
continent would have lived in fear. No neighbor ever 
liked the British. No neighbor ever can until the 
masses are known to them and make the government of 
England in its dealings with other nations a true expres- 
sion of themselves. The people of Britain are most 
lovable; its ruling classes are just what monarchy and 
privilege make of men and women — selfish, narrow, con- 



264 Triumphant Democracy, 

ceited, and tyrannical, and wholly unmindful of others. 
For this reason, while the British have always been 
feared, they have never been loved by other races. 

All this will change, however, when the Democracy 
rules their countrj'-. The parent land will become in 
Europe what the Republic is upon the American con- 
tinent — the unselfish counsellor, the guide, the true 
and trusted friend, of its less powerful, less advanced 
nations. It is not by wicked conquest over other 
States, but by honest, peaceful labor within its own 
bounds and with the good will of all its neighbors that 
the Democracy builds up the State. 



CHAPTER XII. 

TRADE AND COMMERCE. 

*' The great ships which pass between the old and the new lands are 
shuttles weaving a glorious web. Already ' Arbitration ' has been fully 
spelled out upon the pattern, and now comes the motto — ' Peace and 
Goodwill Forever.'" 

The United States of America furnish the only exam- 
ple in the world's history of a community purely indus- 
trial in origin and development. 'Every other nation 
has passed through its military stage. In Europe and in 
Asia, in ancient times as well as in modern, social develop- 
ment has been mainly the result of war. Nearly every 
modern dynasty in Europe has been established by con- 
quest, and every nation there has acquired and held its 
territory by force of arms. Men have been as wild beasts 
slaughtering each other at the command of the small 
privileged classes. The colonies of America, on the 
other hand, were established for commercial purposes, 
and generally the land they acquired was obtained by 
purchase or agreement, and not by conquest. Devoted 
to industry, the American people have never taken up 
the sword, except in self-defence or in defence of their 
institutions. Never has the plough, the hammer, or the 
loom, been deserted for the sword of conquest. Never 



266 Triumphant Democracy. 

has the profession of arms been honored above or even 
equally with other professions. Indeed, before the Civil 
War, soldiers were objects of popular ridicule ; and even 
now, when almost every American above forty years of 
age has either himself shouldered a musket, or has rela- 
tions who have fought for the unity of the country, the 
soldier of fortune — a type common among other peoples 
— is unknown. Such a man as the sanguinary author 
of '■'■ Under Fourteen Flags," a book descriptive of his 
butchering of fellow-men under fourteen different flags, 
would provoke among Americans feelings of repugnance 
and disgust. American regiments are regiments of 
workers. Emblazoned on their banners are not the 
names of cities sacked or of thousands slaughtered, but 
the names of inventors, civilizing influences, labor-sav- 
ing machines. " By this sign shall ye conquer " was also 
the divine prediction for them ; but the symbol was the 
plough, not the cross-shaped hilt of a sword. 

The two armies are those which the poet Holmes 
has so well contrasted : 

" One marches to the drum-beat's roll, 
The wide-mouthed clarion's bray, 
And bears upon a crimson scroll, 
' Our glory is to slay. ' 

One moves in silence by the stream, 

With sad, yet watchful eyes. 
Calm as the patient planet's gleam 

That walks the clouded skies. 



Trade and Commerce, 267 

Along its front no sabres shine, 

No blood-red pennons wave ; 
Its banner bears the single line, 

' Our duty is to save' '' 

While the millions of Europe have been struggling 
in the thralls of military despotism, the American 
people have been for one hundred years peacefully 
working out a career of usefulness. The result is that 
their industrial successes have placed them at the head 
of the world in wealth and power. While practically 
independent herself, America has become indispensable 
to Europe. Without her bountiful supplies of cotton, 
grain, and meat, millions of Europeans would lack food 
and clothing. 

The commercial history of the United States may 
be set forth in a few words. The net imports in- 
cluding coin and bullion, $22,500,030 (^^"4, 500,000) in 
1790, were $75,000,000 (ii" 15,000,000) in 1830. And 
in the next term of fifty years, we find them bound- 
ing from this figure to 8740,000,000 (;^ 148,000,000). 
The exports show even a more rapid advance, for these 
began in 1790 at $20,000,000 (;^4,ooo,ooo) reached $60,- 
000,000 (^12,000,000) in the forty years to 1830, and 
during the past half-century, we find them $725,000,000 
(;^ 145 ,000,000), so that in fifty short years, the foreign 
commerce of the Republic has increased elevenfold. 
The amounts of imports /^rr^/^V^ of the population has 
increased during the last fifty years from S6.25 (;^i 5^) 



268 Triumphant Democracy. 

to about $15 (i^3), while exports increased from $5 {£\) 
to $16.60 (;^3 6^.). Let us see what the few leading 
articles are which go to make up this commerce. What 
did the Republic buy from the world in 1883 ? Sugar 
and molasses to the extent of $100,000,000 (;^I9,875,- 
000.) Surely Brother Jonathan has a sweet tooth, for 
he spent more for sweet things than for anything else. 
For wool and woollen goods he spent $55,000,000 
(^11,000,000), for chemicals $45,000,000 (^9,000,000). 
Even cotton goods, although he exports them him- 
self, he wanted from others, to the tune of $35,000,- 
000 (;;£" 7,000,000), some curious things in cotton, I sup- 
pose, which pleased his fancy, or her fancy, more likely. 
Silks he paid just a little more for, or $37,000,000 
(;^7,400,ooo) went for these. The Scotch say " She 
never bode for a silk goon that didna gat the sleeve 
o't." The American woman goes for the full goon and 
gets it, although now it is generally of domestic manufac- 
ture, no matter what may be the label. Raw silk to be 
manufactured is imported to about one-half the value 
of imported silks, which proves how very much more is 
made at home than is bought abroad, the value of the 
raw silk being many times less than the finished goods. 
His cup of coffee costs the American $42,000,000 
(;£" 8,400,000) per year, and tea, $17,000,000 (^3,400,000). 
These are the principal purchases he makes from 
others. 

Now what does he sell to these good friends whom he 



Trade and Com7nerce, 269 

honors with his patronage ? He does a thriving busi- 
ness truly in this department. First comes his cotton 
exports. The world bought from him in 1883, $250,- 
000,000 (;^ 50,000,000). Then his wheat department dis- 
posed of $120,000,000 worth (;^ 24,000,000), and in the 
form of flour $55,000,000 more (;^ 11,000,000). Meat, 
eggs, butter, and other provisions kept not a few of his 
hands busy, for no less than $107,000,000 (;^ 2 1,400,000) 
had to be sent forward to satisfy the world's wants. 
Even petroleum to the extent of $45,000,000 (;^'9,ooo,- 
000) he sent forth to light the world ; and nasty 
tobacco to end in smoke cost his customers that year 
no less than $22,000,000 (;^4,400,ooo). Wood and its 
manufactures to the extent of $26,500,000 (;^5, 300,000) 
was taken, a great deal of it, no doubt, in the shape 
of furniture. Iron and steel manufactures make a 
much better showing than expected, for he really ex- 
ported these, such as sewing machines, agricultural 
machinery and a thousand and one Yankee notions, 
to the sum of $22,500,000 (;^4, 500,000). And finally 
Uncle Sam sends from his big farm some of his millions 
of live cattle and sheep, and gets $8,500,000 (;£"i,70o,- 
000) for them. 

These products are drawn from several departments, 
which may be classed under the general heads of agri- 
culture, manufactures, mines, forests, etc., and tabulated 
as follows, with the amounts contributed by each ; 



270 



Triumphaiit De77iocracy. 



Agriculture, . 
Manufactures, 
Mining. . 
The Forest, . 
The Fisheries, 
All others, 



$550,000,000 

20,500,000 

56,250,000 

7,050,000 

7,250,000 

7,250,000 



_2^ I 10,000,000 
4,100,000 
I 1,250,000 
1,410,000 
1,250,000 
1,250,000 



Thus does he, the young hopeful, lay under con- 
tribution all wealth-producing sources to swell his 
prosperous and rapidly increasing business with the 
world. 

We see that, notwithstanding the almost incredible 
expansion of home manufactures, the American citizen 
imports more and more from other lands. See him 
only fifty years ago patronizing other people to the 
extent of 86.25 (;^i 5^) per year, and now every man, 
woman, and child spends 815 (;^3) for foreign goods. 
His tariff may be very high and quite outrageous in 
the opinion of many, yet he buys about three times as 
much per head under it as he did fifty years ago. It can 
not be so very bad after all, although it is none the less 
true that year after year America gains firmer control 
of her own markets for manufactured articles. Every 
year sees a decrease of these relatively to the total im- 
ports. In crude and partially manufactured articles 
imports are increasing; in i860, for instance, the pro- 
portion of these was only twenty-six per cent., but by 
uninterrupted advances every decade it rose in 1885 to 
forty per cent, of the total importations, while manu- 



Trade and Commerce. 271 

factured articles fell from seventy-four to sixty per cent, 
of the whole. 

The balance of trade, to which, despite the teaching 
Df economists, Americans still attach great importance, 
has during the last ten or eleven years been continually 
and greatly in favor of the Republic. In the space of 
fifty years foreign commerce has increased fivefold. It 
has nearly doubled since i860, in spite of the check it 
received during the war. It increased greatly in 1880, 
and reached its maximum in 1883; since that time there 
has been a falling off of fourteen per cent., due to the 
protracted period of depression. Up to the year 1876, 
with a few exceptions, the imports were in excess of the 
exports of merchandise, the maximum difference being 
reached in 1872, when the excess was $182,000,000 
(;^36,400,ooo). Since then the balance has been the other 
way, the highest figure being reached in 1879, viz.: 
$264,000,000 (;^ 5 2,800,000). Taking the period from 
i860 to 1885, imports increased sixty-three per cent., 
while the increase in exports was one hundred and 
twenty-nine per cent. 

It is usual to speak of the Republic as without com- 
merce. Much dire prophesying of coming decay is 
indulged in because the sea-going commerce is now 
chiefly carried in foreign ships. The tendency is to 
limit the term '' commerce " to the carriage of mer- 
chandise to and from other countries. So limited, 
America has indeed little to boast of. The change from 



272 Triumphant Democracy, 

wooden to iron and steel ships cut her out of a large 
part of the carrying trade which no fiscal regulations or 
lack of regulations can possibly restore. For the same 
reason that water will not run up hill, ships cannot be 
sailed by dearer to cheaper countries. Had America 
ten thousand large ships, their crews from chief engineer 
to cabin-boy would be foreigners, because these can be 
secured cheaper in Liverpool or Antwerp than in New 
York. Americans can do better than sail the seas 
for the pittances earned by the men of the older lands. 
The first cost of ships must necessarily for the same 
reason be much more here than upon the Clyde. If the 
navigation lav/s were repealed to-morrow no American 
capital would purchase foreign-built ships for trade 
abroad ; and if they did the flag might indeed be the 
Stars and Stripes, but ship and crew would be British. 
The voice might be the voice of Jacob, but the hand 
would be the hand of Esau. In no sense would the 
commercial marine thus created be American or add to 
American wealth. For generations yet to come the at- 
tempt to become the chief carriers of merchandise, if 
made, must result in failure and render the Republic 
ridiculous. 

Here is the fable which meets the case : 

" Ah, ha ! " said the turtle to the lion, as the latter proudly- 
walked the shore, " any kind of a beast can walk on the land as 
well as you do, but let us see you do this," and then it turned a 
somersault in the sea. The lion tried. Result, the turtle fed upon 
the lion for many days. 



Trade and Commerce. 273 

America has no business with ocean navigation till 
her continent is filled, and prices of labor and material 
are down to the European basis. Let her leave the 
stormy sea to the motherland, whose " home is on the 
ocean wave," and stick to land as her natural heritage. 
Columbia's home is on the fertile prairie. 

Notwithstanding all this, America still manages to 
do some of the carrying trade in her wooden ships, in 
the construction of which she has her rivals at a disad- 
vantage, because the timber is here. She carried in 1880 
about $280,000,000 (;^ 5 6,000,000), or more than one-sixth 
of her whole foreign commerce. The coasting trade of 
America, from which foreigners are excluded, presents 
a fairer showing, being thirty-four million tons. The 
total sea-going tonnage of the nation in 1884 was 
three million one hundred and eighty-one thousand eight 
hundred and four tons, which places her next in rank to 
Britain, and far ahead of any other nation. 

From the unique position of Britain as the carrier 
of the world, it follows that her people have uncon- 
sciously been led to attach far too much importance to 
the foreign trade as it concerns nations in general. 
Even in her own case it is trifling compared to her in- 
ternal commerce. Her railways alone carry three times 
as much as all her ships, foreign, sea-going, and domes- 
tic traffic combined. " The milkman who brings the 
daily portion of milk to him who dwells in city or 

town," says Edward Atkinson, the American Adam 
18 



2 74 Trmmphant Democracy. 

Smith, " represents a commerce of vast proportions, 
almost equal in this country, in its aggregate value, to 
the whole sum of our foreign importations." 

The home commerce of America as compared to 
her foreign is as twenty-one to one ; and even Britain's 
gigantic foreign commerce is only one-sixth as great as 
the home commerce of America. 

The shipping engaged in this internal commerce has 
an aggregate tonnage of one million tons, which, added 
to the sea-going, gives as the total American tonnage 
engaged in commerce four million tv/o hundred and 
fifty thousand tons, as against the seven million tons 
of Britain. The total American traffic with foreign 
nations is sixteen millions of tons. If every ton car- 
ried in foreign ships were carried in American ships, 
the additional trade would not be as great as the 
natural increase of her home commerce for a single year. 
Truly a paltry prize to contend for and make such a fuss 
about. The American coasting tonnage alone more 
than doubles the entire foreign traffic (thirty-four as 
against sixteen million tons), while the domestic com- 
merce by rail is reported as two hundred and ninety- 
one, and by steamers on lakes and rivers as twenty-five 
and a half millions of tons. Thus it appears that our 
internal commerce, of which so little is heard, is more 
than twenty times greater than the foreign trade. 
One ton of foreign to twenty tons of domestic com* 
merce ! Really there is no greater impostor than 



Trade and Commerce. 275 

the distinguished stranger known as "Foreign Com- 
merce." 

The inter-dependence of our States, and hence the 
commerce between them, is shown in an interesting way 
by an illustration borrowed from my friend Mr. Edward 
Atkinson — " a homely illustration in a subject not 
fitted for poetic treatment, nor likely to appeal to the 
imagination, commerce in hogs. The great prairies of 
the West grow corn in such abundance that even now, 
with all our means of inter-communication, it can not 
be all used as food, and some of it is consumed as fuel. 
It often happens that the farmer upon new land, 
remote from railroads, can get only fifteen to twenty 
cents per bushel for Indian corn, at which price, while 
it is the best, it is also the cheapest fuel that he can 
have, and its use is an evidence of good economy, and 
not of waste. Upon the fat prairie lands of the West, 
the hog is w^holesomely fed only upon corn in the milk 
or corn in the ear ; thence he is carried to the colder 
climate of Massachusetts, where by the use of that one 
crop in which New England excels all others — ice — 
the meat can be packed at all seasons of the year; 
there it is prepared to serve as food for the workmen of 
the North, the freemen of the South, or the artisan of 
Europe ; while the blood, dried in a few hours to a fine 
powder, and sent to the cotton fields of South Carolina 
and Georgia to be mixed with the phosphate rocks 
that underlie their coast land, serves to produce the 



276 Triumphant Democracy, 

cotton fibre which furnishes the cheapest and fittest 
clothing for the larger portion of the inhabitants of the 
world. 

Here, then, is commerce, or men serving each other 
on a grand scale, all developed within the century, and 
undreamed of by our ancestors. The vast plains of the 
West, enriched by countless myriads of buffalo, can 
spare for years to come a portion of their productive 
force. Commerce sets in motion her thousand wheels, 
food is borne to those who need it, and they are saved 
the effort to obtain it on the more sterile soil of the 
cold North. Commerce turns that very cold to use. 
The refuse is saved, and commerce has discovered that 
its use is to clothe the naked in distant lands. Borne 
to the sandy but healthy soils of Georgia and South 
Carolina, it renovates them with the fertility thus trans- 
ferred from the prairies of Illinois and Indiana, and 
presently there comes back to Massachusetts the cotton 
of the farmers, the well saved, clean, strong, and even 
staple, which commerce again has discovered to be 
worth identifying as the fariners, not as the planter's 
crop, made by his own labor, and picked by his wife 
and children." 

Much is said in Britain about the tariff policy of the 
Republic, but the results of that policy I fear are 
but little understood. The general impression is 
that the duties charged are so exorbitant as seriously 
to cripple trade between the old and new lands. So 



Trade and Commerce, 277 

far from this being true, Britain has no customer to 
whom she sends so much of her manufactures, nor any 
with whom her trade increases so rapidly. This so- 
called highly protective and heavily taxed Republic 
imports more British goods than any other people. 
Here are the figures for 1883, which was a poor year 
for American business : Britain sent goods to India 
in that year valued at twenty-four millions sterling, to 
Germany nineteen millions, to France eighteen millions, 
and to the Republic twenty-seven millions sterling. 

The total importations of America that year were 
$725,000,000 (;^ 1 45, 000,000), and of this vast sum more 
than a full one-third, or $250,000,000 (^50,000,000) 
came from Britain and British possessions; $185,000,000 
(;^3 7,000,000) came from Great Britain and Ireland 
proper."^^ 

To show how overwhelmingly the Republic buys 
from Britain, we have but to contrast its purchases 
from other lands. France, in 1882, supplied only 
$90,000,000 (i^ 1 8,000,000) worth of goods, and Ger- 
many but $56,000,000 (;^ 1 1,200,000) worth. The com- 
bined trade of these two principal sources of supply 
after Britain, exceeds but little more than one-half of 
Britain's sum including British possessions, nor do they 



* The difference in value between this thirty-seven million pounds and 
the twenty-seven million pounds reported as exports that year from 
Britain to the United States may be found in the differing values at the 
place of manufacture in Britain and value in America duty paid. 



278 Triumphant Democracy, 

combined come near equalling the purchases from 
Britain proper, for together France and Germany sent 
but $146,000,000 (^29,200,000), while Britain sent $196,- 
000,000 (i^ 39, 200,000). 

Britain could lose either France or Germany, and 
almost both combined as purchasers, and her trade 
would not suffer as much as from the withdrawal of 
the much abused American. Is it not time for the 
Monarchy to be just a little mindful of this fact, and 
to behave itself accordingly towards its dutiful off- 
spring, who year after year increases his patronage, 
and takes of her manufactures more than he takes from 
all the rest of the world ? The question of Free Trade 
in America is one which will not be within the reach of 
practical politics in the lives of those now living. To 
bring it about, one of two courses is necessary: either 
the revenue must be raised by increased internal taxa- 
tion, or the duty must be enormously raised upon the 
only necessaries of life which America imports largely, 
sugar, coffee, etc.; neither of these seem probable. A 
new duty upon the food of the people of Britain is 
just as probable as one in America ; even democratic 
President Cleveland in his first message to Congress, 
states that any reduction in the tariff should be made 
in the duties now imposed upon the necessaries of life. 
The tendency is all in this direction. The second 
course would be to raise revenue by direct taxation ; 
this is the ideal standard, and the Republic in its 



Trade and Commerce, 279 

march may some day work up to it, and give another 
advanced political lesson to others ; so far no nation 
has ever tried even to approach it ; evidently it is not 
for our day or generation. 

What then is the possible and consequently the only 
probable outcome of tariff discussion. Nothing beyond 
a possible gradual reduction of duties at intervals of 
some years, say five or six per cent, each decade, but 
these reductions speaking generally vv^ill be made only 
upon such articles as can be manufactured profitably 
here, with lower than the existing duties, nor will the 
duties be lowered to a point which will cripple the home 
manufacture. The question is not now which policy is 
the better for a new nation, Free Trade or Protection, 
but how is the huge fabric of manufactures to be dealt 
with, the greatest in the world, as we have seen. It 
has been called into existence upon certain conditions 
and has accommodated itself thereto. The conservatism 
of the Democracy is so ingrained as to justify one in 
prophesying that great care will be taken not to dis- 
turb it unduly. I often hear surprise expressed in Eu- 
rope that the vast body of consumers should bear so 
contentedly the extra cost upon what they purchase, 
the result of heavy duties. The explanation is two- 
fold ; first, manufacturers are spreading rapidly over 
most of the States; the Southern States of Alabama, 
Tennessee, Missouri and others for instance are really 
protective States now from this cause, as are Minnesota 



28o Triumphant Democracy , 

and Michigan in the North-west ; but the second cause 
lies much deeper. Prices of articles are no longer gene- 
rally fixed by the foreign but by the home competition. 
One instance may illustrate many other branches in 
which the consumers buy what they need very cheap, 
in many cases about as cheap as the European does, 
wholly irrespective of duty. The duty upon steel rails 
is say $17.50 (;^3 lis) per ton, market price in Britain, 
£^ ship's side Liverpool, total in New York, provided 
they were transported and laid down there for nothing 
would still be $42.50 or £Z \os. The railroads of Amer- 
ica have had no difficulty in purchasing hundreds of 
thousands of tons at $28 (;^5 I2i-), and they know well 
that if any considerable portion of their requirements 
had to come from abroad the cost would very greatly 
exceed this. 

In clothing, which was formerly the article upon 
which the greatest difference in price existed between 
the two countries, the case is much the same. Some 
competent friends visiting us from England assure me 
that prices generally are as cheap as at home and in 
some cases even cheaper. Foreign competition has 
been recommended as the necessary and certain cure 
against exorbitant profits being exacted by the home 
manufacturer to the detriment of the consumer ; very 
good, but precisely the same cure is found, from vigor- 
ous home competition. As far as the foreigner was 
concerned, as we have seen in the case of steel rails, the 



Trade aftd Commerce, 281 

American manufacturer might have had forty-two dol- 
lars and fifty cents per ton for rails which he was forced 
to sell for twenty-eight dollars, which was only the Brit- 
ish price, twenty-five dollars, with a fair rate of trans- 
portation to New York and expenses incident thereto, 
without a penny added for duty. What forced him to 
do so and give the consumer rails for twenty-eight dol- 
lars ? Home competition. 

Even our monarchical friends in Canada bought 
steel rails from American mills last year, because the 
cost was less than was demanded for those of Brit- 
ish manufacture, although both were alike as to duty. 

I merely venture to give the facts bearing upon the 
present aspect of the question as far as the Republic is 
concerned, that those in Europe who bewail the hard 
fate of the consumer here may be comforted, for truly 
he is not paying the fair cost of his supplies plus the 
duty, but only the unprecedentedly low prices estab- 
lished by the close and unremitting competition of home 
manufacturers, and these prices, as has been shown in the 
chapter on manufactures, are with rare exceptions not 
much above those of Britain. It is for these reasons 
that the consumer is not troubling him.self, and cannot 
be made to trouble himself, very greatly with the ques- 
tion of the tariff. 

Far be it from me to retard the march of the world 
tov/ards the free and unrestricted interchange of com- 
modities. When the Democracy obtains sway through- 



282 Triumphant Democracy, 

out the earth the nations will become friends and 
brothers, instead of being as now the prey of the mon- 
archical and aristocratic ruling classes, and always war- 
ring with each other; standing armies and war ships will 
be of the past, and men will then begin to destroy cus- 
tom-houses as relics of a barbarous monarchical age, not 
altogether from the low plane of economic gain or loss, 
but strongly impelled thereto from the higher stand- 
point of the brotherhood of man ; all restriction upon 
the products of other lands will then seem unworthy of 
any member of the race, and the dawn of that day will 
have come when 

" Man to man the world o'er 
Shall brothers be and a' that." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

RAILWAYS AND WATERWAYS. 

** And you will then (when the Colonies achieve independence) see 
how the earth will be beautified ! What culture ! What new arts and 
new sciences ! What safety for commerce ! Navigation will precipitate all 
the peoples toward each other. A day will come when we will go into 
a populous and regulated city of California as one goes in the stage- 
coach of Meaux." — Ma-rquis D'Argenson. (1745.) 

The inhabitants of the tight little island of Britain 
or of the miniature States of Europe can have no con- 
ception of distance as understood by the American. 
The vastness of the American continent gives a cor- 
responding width to the conceptions of space formed 
by its inhabitants. The State of New York is almost 
as large as England, while Texas is larger than France, 
or England and Germany combined. California has 
a greater area than Austria ; and some other States 
and Territories, known only by name in England, like 
Nevada, Colorado, Oregon, and Nebraska, haye areas 
greater than several European kingdoms. 

The distance from New York to Chicago exceeds 
that from London to Rome, while San Francisco is 
farther from the Atlantic coast than Quebec is from 
London. The journey from Philadelphia to New 
Orleans is nearly twice as great as that from London 
to St. Petersburg ; while Jerusalem, Cairo, Cyprus, 



284 Triumphant Democracy, 

Constantinople, Astrakan, and Teneriffe are all nearef 
to Hyde Park corner than Salt Lake City is to Bos- 
ton, and Salt Lake City is only two-thirds of the way 
across the continent. During the Civil War the fron- 
tier defended by General Grant exceeded in length a 
line drawn from London across the Channel and Conti- 
nent to Constantinople, thence through Asia Minor and 
Palestine to the great pyramid at Cairo, and thence 
still on up the Nile as far as the first cataract. And 
this line, if drawn, would be many miles shorter than the 
journey from New York to the city of Portland, Oregon. 
These comparisons will help the British reader to 
conceptions which are as familiar to the American as 
the star-spangled emblem of his nationality. It will 
also help the European to form a slight estimate of the 
labor and cost by which there has been spread over this 
vast continent a net-work of railways which ramify it in 
every part. One hundred years ago America was 
almost as much a dark continent as Africa is now. 
A few adventurous pioneers and explorers had forced 
their way to the Father of Waters, and descended by 
it to the Gulf of Mexico, but a transcontinental jour- 
ney was unthought of until 1803, when, at the recom- 
mendation of President Jefferson, an exploring expedi- 
tion was sent to the Pacific under command of Captain 
William Clarke and Meriwether Lewis. It was consid- 
ered a wonderful feat when the little party under their 
charge penetrated the wilderness across the mountains 



Railways and Waterways. 285 

and down the westward slope to the mouth of the Col- 
umbia River on the Pacific, two years and four months 
being required for the journey and return. Even in 
1830 there were no facilities for internal travel. The 
States along the coast had constructed rough turnpike 
roads, and railways were just introduced ; but the heart 
of the continent was practically closed to all but the 
most adventurous. 

Two-thirds of all the mails were carried in lumbering 
stage-coaches, with bodies hung upon leather straps that 
they might swing freely in any direction without being 
knocked to pieces as they struggled over the corduroy 
roads. A trip in one of these vehicles tossed the trav- 
eller as if he were in a fishing smack upon the Channel 
in a storm. The other third was carried upon the 
backs of horses and in sulkies. Steamboats were car- 
riers over only a few small short routes, and there 
were only twenty-three miles of railway laid in all the 
land. All this was as late as 1830, just over fifty years 
ago. 

The discomforts of stage-coach travelling in America 
cannot even be guessed at in these days of palace-cars 
and forty miles per hour express trains. The books of 
early visitors are full of invective and complaints at the 
horrors of an American stage. The Norwegian, Arfed- 
son, wrote in 1832 : 

" A traveller intending to proceed thence (from Augusta, S, C.) 
by land to New Orleans is earnestly recommended to bid adieu to 



286 Triumphant Defnocracy, 

all comforts on leaving Augusta, and make the necessary prepara- 
tions for a hard and rough campaign. If he has a wife and chil- 
dren unprovided for, and to whom he has not the means of leaving 
a suitable legacy, let him by all means be careful to insure his life 
fo the highest amount the office will take ; for the chances of his 
perishing on the road are ten to one, calculated according to the 
following table of casualties : 

1 by horses running away, 3 by murder, 

2 by drowning, 4 by explosion." 

Miss Martineau in 1834-5 thus describes her experi- 
ences : 

"The mail roads are still extremely bad. I found in travelling 
through the Carolinas and Georgia, that the drivers consider them- 
selves entitled to get on by any means they can devise : that no- 
body helps and nobody hinders them. It was constantly happening 
that the stage came to a stop on the brink of a wide and a deep 
puddle, extending all across the road. The driver helped himself, 
without scruple, to as many rails of the nearest fence as might 
serve to fill up the bottom of the hole, or break our descent into it. 
On inquiry, I found it was not probable that either fence or road 
would be mended till both had gone to absolute destruction. 

" The traffic on these roads is so small, that the stranger feels 
himself almost lost in the wilderness. In the course of several days* 
journey, we saw (with the exception of the wagons of a few en- 
campments) only one vehicle besides our own. It was a stage 
returning from Charleston. Our meeting in the forest was like the 
meeting of ships at sea. We asked the passengers from the South 
of news from Charleston and Europe ; and they questioned us about 
the state of politics at Washington. The eager vociferation of 
drivers and passengers was like such as is unusual, out of exile. 
We were desired to give up all thoughts of going by the eastern 



Railways and Waterways. 287 

road to Charleston. The road might be called impassable ; and 
there was nothing to eat by the way." 

Even as late as 1850 Sir Charles Lyell says : 

"After comparing the risks it seems to be more dangerous to 
travel by land, in a hew country, than by river steamers, and some 
who have survived repeated journeyings in stage-coaches show us 
many scars. The judge who escorted my wife to Natchez in- 
formed her that he had been upset no less than thirteen times." 

To the inconvenience of stage travelling, described 
in these extracts, must be added that of being jolted 
over corduroy roads, made of logs placed longitudinally 
across the road, with nothing to fill up the inequal- 
ities of surface. On roads where there was no com- 
petition the slowness of the stages was very exasper- 
ating. One writer says : " We scarcely averaged more 
than three and a half miles an hour ; and in urging the 
drivers even to this speed, had to submit to no little 
insolence into the bargain." The insolence of drivers 
is complained of by nearly all the English travellers at 
this period. Passengers had also to look after their 
own baggage, and to get out into the mud and rain to 
fasten it to the coach when the jolting had loosened 
the straps. 

The Democratic Review for September, 1839, says, 
that in 1835 the " speed of communication achieved by 
the express mail was deemed almost the acme of mail 
improvement ; " and as examples it mentions the fol- 
lowing: 



288^ 



Triumphant Democracy, 





1 
Days. 

I 


Hours. 


From New York to Washington, .... 


8 


*' " Richmond, Va., 








2 


13 


•*' " Columbia, S. C, 








6 


3 


" ** Milledgeville, Ga., . 








7 


15 


" " Mobile, Ala., . 








12 


12 


•' " New Orleans, . 








H 





** " Columbus, O., 








4 


16 


*' " Indianapolis, Ind., 








7 


14 


" " St. Louis, Mo., 








13 


10 


" " Huntsville, Ala., 








II 


22 


" New Orleans to Montgomery, Ala., 








3 


21 


" " Nashville, Tenn., 








lO 





" " Louisville, Ky., 








13 





" " Cincinnati, O., 








H 


II 


" " Columbus, O., 








16 


9 


Pittsburg, Pa., 








15 


5 



How diverse were the means of travel in those days 
is well illustrated by a journey from Troy to Chicago 
made in 1832 by Mr. Philo Carpenter. He took the Erie 
Canal to Buffalo, and thence went by lake steamer to 
Detroit. Four and a half days was then the usual time 
for this passage. From Detroit Mr. Carpenter went by 
weekly mail-coach to Niles, and then took passage from 
Niles to the mouth of the St. Joseph River on a flat- 
boat. Thence he was conveyed by two Indians in a 
bark canoe which they improvised, as far as the mouth 
of the Calumet, where one of the Indians was seized 
with a colic and they refused to proceed further. Our 
traveler then bargained with a settler for the use of a 
lumber wagon drawn by oxen ; and with this he event- 
ually reached Fort Dearborn, as Chicago was then 



Railways and Waterways, 289 

called. The limited express now does this journey in 
twenty-four hours, and the traveler never has to leave 
his peripatetic hotel. 

After 1830 came the transition period, when primi- 
tive railways began to compete with canal-boats and 
stage-coaches. In the Philadelphia Public Ledger for 
May 22, 1836, appeared the following advertisement, 
headed by a primitive looking engine and cars: 

" Fare Reduced to $12. — New Express Fast Packet Line, 
from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh — the only line exclusively for 
passengers, via Lancaster and Harrisburgh Railroads and Pennsyl- 
vania Canals. Leaves daily at 6 o'clock a.m. — through tJi three 
days. For passage apply to, at the office 51 Chestnut Street, below 
Third Street, John Cameron, Agent." 

And two years later in the same journal appears the 
following : 

"Fare Reduced! Leech & Co. 's packet line to Pittsburgh, 
via Railroads and Canals. Through in four and a half days ^ 

Upon one of these canal-boats I sav/ arrive in Pitts- 
burg the first locomotive tiiat ever came west of the 
Ohio River. 

The early railroads seem very rude judged by mod- 
ern standards: 

" Passenger cars were small vehicles, holding no more than 

from eighteen to twenty-four passengers, and not much, if any, 

heavier than the large stage-coaches. The iron (used for rails) 

was flat-bar iron, from half to three-fourths of an inch thick, spiked 

19 



290 Triumphant Democracy. 

on wooden sleepers which were lightly tied, and on tracks not per- 
fectly graded or heavily ballasted. The locomotives weighed from 
two to six or seven tons, and drew corresponding loads. Great 
weight and high speed would have destroyed the tracks. One of 
the dangers of travel was from ' snake-heads,' caused by the loosen- 
ing of the ends of the thin rails, which, bending up, were caught 
between the wheels and driven through the bottom of the cars, 
wounding or impaling any one who sat over the point of entrance. 
Instead of grading up or down steep declivities, cars were passed 
over the incline by counter-weights of box-cars, loaded with stone, 
which balanced them like window-weights, and made it easy to 
pass up one as the other went down. . . . Twenty miles a year 
were in those days rapid railroad building." 

The first railway trains were drawn by horses or 
mules, though locomotives were early introduced from 
England and duplicated in America. An account of 
the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad, printed in Wil- 
liam's Register for 1833, concludes with the words : 

" Passengers are carried upon this road in coaches, drawn by 
horses, and by the locomotive-engines, whose powers are not yet 
conclusively tried.'' 

And from a passage in the Charlesto7t Patriot for April, 
1830, it would appear that other means of propulsion 
had been tried. 

" Yesterday afternoon, a sail was set on a car on the railroad, 
before a large assembly of persons. It went at the rate of twelve 
to fifteen miles per hour, with fifteen persons on board. After- 
wards thirteen persons and three tons of iron were carried at the 



Railways and Waterways, 291 

rate of ten miles per hour. Considering the haste, and imperfect 
manner, in which the sail was got up, the result was highly grati- 
fying." 

But the most curious of propelling machines was 
one invented by Detmold. This was an engine run by 
a horse walking on an endless platform like the early 
horse-ferries. This curious machine carried passengers 
at the rate of twelve miles an hour. 

Observe how the interior of the continent has been 
thrown open to civilization. A Santa Fe merchant 
wrote in 1830, ^' on the day of our departure (with 
wagon-trains drawn by mules) from Independence we 
passed the last human abode upon our route ; therefore, 
from the borders of Missouri to those of New Mexico, 
not even an Indian settlement greeted our eyes." And 
when wagons instead of pack-mules were first used for 
internal transportation, the extraordinary nature of the 
change was sufRcient to justify the following in Nile's 
Register for May 8, 1850: 

"A party of seventy men, with te7i wagons^ was recently fitting 
out at St. Louis, for an expedition to the Rocky Mountains ! What 
next ? " 

Nearly thirty years later a regular stage line was 
established, by the Pike's Peak Express Company, 
between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains. 
Transportation was effected by wagon-trains, and ox 
and mule-trains; and so perfectly did this hne work. 



292 TriumpJia7it Democracy. 

that a distance of seven hundred miles was made in six 
days and nights. Then in the spring of i860 the 
owners of the Pike's Peak stage line established v/hat 
was known as the Pony Express, which served as a daily 
fast-mail line between the cities of the Atlantic and 
Pacific coasts. The scheme was a marvel of American 
enterprise. Previous to that time, over three weeks 
were required to convey mails by steamer from New 
York to San Francisco. This Pony Express made the 
distance between the railway terminus on the Missouri 
River and the Pacific in eight or nine days. Brave men 
and first-class stock were required, for Indians and 
highwaymen were often encountered, and the relay 
st'ations were sometimes burned, and the stock run off. 
Almost the entire distance of nearly tv/o thousand 
miles to be traversed was one vast solitude. No de- 
lays were permitted, the mail-bags were kept constantly 
on the move during these long and lonely trips. 
Horses were changed at every station, and riders at 
intervals of from fifty to seventy miles. The rapid 
time made caused the government to send the mails 
overland. 

From such small beginnings has grown the magnifi- 
cent railroad system of America. When the success of 
the first road had been proved, others quickly sprang 
into existence ; and presently all over the inhabited 
portions of the continent men were digging, grading, 
blasting, tunnelling at a rate which has hardly suffered 



Railways a7td Waterways. 293 

diminution, and has never ceased. The development of 
the resources of the country by means of these artificial 
highways has gone on with marvellous rapidity. 

Finally the idea of stretching a railway line across 
the entire continent began to take possession of the 
public mind. As early as 1846 the feasibility of such 
an undertaking had been discussed in Congress, and in 
1849 t^^^ i*^^^ took tangible shape in the form of a 
bill introduced by Senator Benton. In 185 1 surveying 
parties were sent out to decide upon a route ; but 
delays afterwards resulted from diflferences between the 
Northern and Southern States. When the war removed 
this obstacle acts of Congress were passed providing 
subsidies in gold and land to the corporations author- 
ized to build the road. Work was commenced in 1863, 
but only in a dilatory way. In 1865 the work progressed 
at a rate unheard of before. The rails were laid at the 
rate of two and three miles a day, and in one instance 
eight miles of track were laid. The line was com- 
pleted and thrown open to traffic throughout its entire 
length in 1869. Since then three other transcontinen- 
tal lines have been constructed ; and now every part of 
the great Republic Is the neighbor of the other part. 
The Bostonian does not think of his fellow-citizens of 
New Orleans as one thousand six hundred miles away, 
but as distant only forty-odd hours. The New Yorker 
does not speak of the thousand miles intervening be- 
tween him and Chicago, but only of the twenty-four 



294 Trhimphant Democracy, 

hours required to get there. In one sense space has 
been annihilated in America, and time is nov/ the only- 
measure of men's separation from each other. 

American railways were built under charters for 
short distances, but as population increased these were 
consolidated and managed as great through-lines be- 
tween termini hundreds of miles apart. In time these 
main lines absorbed branch and connecting lines, and 
now there are several systems, each serving extensive 
districts. Of these the most important, the Pennsyl- 
vania, is a good example. Its net-work of lines aggre- 
gates five thousand four hundred and ninety-one miles, 
with more than a thousand miles of second, third, and 
fourth tracks : gross earnings in 1884 were $8o,C)00,ocX) 
(;^ 1 6,000,000). The tonnage was sixty-three million 
tons, and the cost of moving perhaps the lowest in 
the world, being about four mills (less than a half- 
penny) per ton per mile. Certainly no rates for traffic 
in Europe are so low as the average received by the 
Pennsylvania Railroad. This line is solidly built, stone 
ballasted, and in every respect compares favorably with 
the trunk lines of Europe, if we except numerous road 
crossings at grade which would not be tolerated abroad. 
From its depot opposite New York four times per day 
through trains start for the great West, with sleeping- 
coaches which run through without change to Chicago, 
St. Louis, and Cincinnati ; in special cases when desired, 
the travelling party may pass on to San Francisco or to 



Railways and Waterways, 295 

New Orleans without change. A *' dining" or "hotel- 
car" is attached at proper intervals and every luxury 
suppHed upon these peripatetic Delmonicos. The New 
York Central, Erie, and Baltimore and Ohio are sys- 
tems of similar character between the East and West. 

Chicago, the Western metropolis, has also its corre- 
sponding railway systems some of which are of great 
magnitude. The Chicago, Burlington and Ouincy has 
three thousand three hundred and seventy-three miles, 
the Chicago and North-western three thousand two 
hundred and seventy-one miles, and the Chicago, Mil- 
waukee and St. Paul, the work of that man of Aberdeen, 
Alexander Mitchell, no less than four thousand eight 
hundred and four miles under its sway. 

It is with railways as with manufacturers ; consoli- 
dation into the hands of a few organizations seems the 
inevitable tendency. The saving and efficiency thus 
effected over the hundred former disjointed petty cor- 
porations, each with its officers and staffs, are so mani- 
festly great that nothing can prevent these consoli- 
dations. What the outcome of this massing of forces is 
to be is difficult to foretell, but that it is in accordance 
with economic laws is certain ; therefore we can pro- 
ceed without fear. We are on sure ground, hence the 
final result must be beneficial. If corporations grov/ 
to gigantic size and attempt to use their powers like 
giants, forgetting that they are the creatures and ser- 
vants of the State, we may safely trust the Democracy 



296 Triumphant Democracy. 

to deal with them. There is no problem which an edu- 
cated people cannot and will not solve in the interests 
of the people when solution is demanded. 

The American railway system, starting fifty-five 
years ago at nothing, has reached, in 1885, one hundred 
and twenty-eight thousand miles of line. The whole of 
Europe has not so many, for in 18S3 it had only one 
hundred and fourteen thousand three hundred miles, 
and the entire world but two hundred and seventy- 
nine thousand eight hundred and fifty miles. The rec- 
ord for the past ten years shows with what strides the 
iron road is girding the continent, for during that period 
no less than fifty-four thousand two hundred and eighty 
miles were built. When we read that in 1880 India, with 
its two hundred and fifty millions of people, added to 
its railways only two hundred and seventy-three miles, 
and the Republic, with its fifty millions, added in 1881 
eleven thousand five hundred miles, we get some idea 
of the- speed at which she rushes on. The ivhole oj 
Europe has not built as many iniles of railway as the Re- 
public has during some recent years, and in 1880 the whole 
world did not build as majiy. It will be only a few years, 
probably not ten, ere the railway lines of America exceed 
in length those of all the rest of the world. The Repub- 
lic in one scale, and ^' The World " in the other, and 
" The World " kicking the beam ! Monster, you were 
called into existence only to redress the balance of the 
Old World, and within one short century we find you 



Railways and Waterways. 297 

threatening to weigh it down ! The RepubHc against 
*' the field " and no takers ! 

In no other country is travel so comfortable and 
luxurious. For this we are chiefly indebted to a re- 
markable American invention, the sleeping-car, without 
which such extended lines would have remained an im- 
perfect instrument for the consolidation of the people. 
Journeys between the oceans, requiring seven days 
and nights to perform, or even that between Chicago 
and other Western cities to Nevv^ York and the East, 
which occupy but twenty-four to forty-eight hours' con- 
secutive travel, could have been undertaken only in ex- 
treme cases, had the unfortunate traveller been required 
to sit up, as in the old-fashioned cars. Well do I re- 
member that, when a clerk in the service of the Penn- 
sylvania Railroad Company, a tall, spare, farmer-looking 
kind of man came to me once when I was sitting on the 
end seat of the rear car looking over the line. He said 
he had been told by the conductor that I was connected 
with the railway company, and he wished me to look at 
an invention he had made. With that he drew from a 
green bag (as if it were for lawyers* briefs), a small model 
of a sleeping berth for railway cars. He had not spoken 
a minute, before, like a flash, the whole range of the dis- 
covery burst upon me. " Yes," I said, '^ that is some- 
thing which this continent must have." I promised to 
address him upon the subject as soon as I had talked 
over the matter with my superior, Thomas A. Scott. 



298 Triumphant Democracy. 

I could not get that blessed sleeping-car out of my 
head. Upon my return I laid it before Mr. Scott, de- 
claring that it was one of the inventions of the age. 
He remarked: "You are enthusiastic, young man, but 
you may ask the inventor to come and let me see it." 
I did so, and arrangements were made to build two 
trial cars, and run them on the Pennsylvania Railroad. 
I was offered an interest in the venture, which, of 
course, I gladly accepted. Payments were to be made 
ten per cent, per month after the cars were delivered, 
the Pennsylvania Railroad Company guaranteeing to 
the builders that the cars should be kept upon its line 
and under its control. 

This was all very satisfactory until the notice came 
that my share of the first payment was 82 17.50 (^^43). 
How well I remember the exact sum ; but two hun- 
dred and seventeen dollars and a half were as far be- 
yond my means as if it had been millions. I was earn- 
ing $50 [£i<S) per month, however, and had prospects, 
or at least I always felt that I had. What was to be 
done? I decided to call on the local banker, Mr. 
Lloyd, state the case, and boldly ask him to advance 
the sum upon my interest in the aflair. He put his 
hand on my shoulder and said : *' Why, of course, 
Andie, you are all right. Go ahead. Here is the 
money." It is a proud day for a man when he pays 
his last note, but not to be named in comparison with 
the day in which he makes his first one, and gets a 



Raihvays and Waterways. 299 

banker to take it. I have tried both and I know. 
The cars paid the subsequent payments from their 
earnings. I paid my first note from my savings so 
much per month, and thus did I get my foot upon for- 
tune's ladder. It is easy to cHmb after that. A tri- 
umphant success was scored. And thus came sleeping- 
cars into the vv^orld. " Blessed be the man who invented 
sleep," says Sancho Panza. Thousands upon thou- 
sands will echo the sentiment. Blessed be the man who 
invented sleeping-cars. Let me record his name and 
testify my gratitude to him, my dear, quiet, modest, 
truthful, farmer-looking friend, T. T. Woodruff, one of 
the benefactors of the age. 

This brings us to another remarkable man, George 
M. Pullman, as great a genius in organization and 
administration as Woodruff was in his peculiar line. 
It did not take this typical American of Chicago very 
long to see what part sleeping-cars were bound to play 
upon the American continent ; and while a few cautious 
old gentlemen in Philadelphia were managing the origi- 
nal cars, in that dawdling temporising way which is so 
amusing, making ten bites of even the smallest cherry, 
this young man laid his daring plans. He would con- 
tract for twenty or thirty cars, while the Philadelphia 
people hesitated to engage for one. The result was that 
Mr. Pullman completely eclipsed them. I soon saw 
that we had a genius to deal with, and advised the old 
concern to capture Mr. Pullman. There was a capture, 



300 TriMmphant Democracy, 

but it did not quite take that form. They found them- 
selves swallowed by this ogre, and Pullman monopo- 
lized everything. It was well that it should be so. 
The man had arisen who could manage, and the tools 
belonged to him. To-day his company has a paid-up 
capital of about thirty millions of dollars, and its rami- 
fications extend everywhere. Mr. Pullman is a remark- 
able man, for he not only manages this business, he 
has created it. Before he appeared upon the scene a 
sleeping-car company had no rights which a railway 
company was bound to respect. Mr. Pullman has made 
the business respectable, and the travelling public are 
very much his debtors. Should Mr. Pullman's life be 
spared, I prophesy that the young contractor for ele- 
vating buildings in Chicago will leave a monument for 
himself in his new industrial town of Pullman which 
will place his name with those of Salt of Saltaire and 
Godin of Guise. A short roll of honor this, which 
contains the list of those who, springing from honest 
poverty, have made fortunes through honest toil, and 
then — ah, here comes the secret of the shortness of the 
list — and then turning back to look upon the poor 
workers where they started, have thereafter devoted 
their fortune and abilities so to improve the indus- 
trial system as to give to that class a better chance in 
life than it was possible for themselves to obtain. 
Mr. Pullman has made a start upon this toilsome path. 
His future deserves to be carefully watched. 



Railways and Waterways, 301 

If ev^er aerial navigation becomes practicable it will 
like railways attain its highest development in America ; 
for here men's lives are too full of activity to permit 
lounging in parlor-cars drawn wearily by a locomotive 
at only forty miles an hour when it is possible for men 
to soar through the air and outstrip their own symbolic 
eagle in its flight. 

Nature has done much for America as regards facil- 
ities for transportation. Her inland seas, containing 
one-third of all the fresh water in the world, and her 
great rivers lay ready at hand awaiting only the applica- 
tion of steam to vessels to render them magnificent 
highways. A vessel sailing round the edges of these 
American lakes traverses a greater distance than from 
New York to Liverpool. 

The rivers of America are also the largest in the 
world. After the Amazon and the La Plata comes the 
Mississippi, with an outflow of over two million cubic 
feet per hour. This mighty river, which the Indians 
called in their picturesque language Father of Waters, 
is equal in bulk to all the rivers of Europe combined, 
exclusive of the Volga. It is equal to three Ganges, 
nine Rhones, twenty-seven Seines, or eighty Tibers. 
" The mighty Tiber chafing with its flood," says the 
Master. Hov/ v/ould he have described the Mississippi 
on the rampage after a spring flood, when it pours 
down its mighty volume of water and overflows the ad- 
jacent lowlands ! Eighty Tibers in one ! Burn^' pic- 



302 Trmmphant Democracy. 

ture of the pretty little Ayr in flood has been extolled, 
where the foaming waters came down ^' an acre braid." 
What think you of a tumbling sea twenty miles" braid " 
instead of your " acre," dear Robin? The length of the 
Mississippi is two thousand two hundred and fifty 
miles, while its navigable tributaries exceed twenty 
thousand miles. The Father of Waters collects his 
substance from water-sheds covering an area of more 
than two and a half million square miles. 

The Hudson is navigable by large steamers as far as 
Albany, one hundred and fifty miles inland from the 
Atlantic. There are quite a dozen other rivers in which 
the like is possible. Many well-known sea-ports are 
considerable distances from the coast properly speaking. 
Such are Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans, and on 
the Pacific coast, Portland. The presence of inland 
ports, with extensive docks, piers, and large craft, is a 
constant source of astonishment to the European trav- 
eller. The sight of ships of three thousand tons burden, 
fifteen hundred miles from salt water, is sufficient to 
surprise one in whom the sight of rigged ships has al- 
ways been associated with the sea. Walking along the 
quays of the lake cities, Buffalo, Toledo, Chicago, or 
Duluth, one might well imagine himself at the sea-coast. 
These great natural waterways have been supple- 
mented, and connected v/ith each other by artificial 
canals. There v/ere in the United States in 1880, 
four thousand four hundred and sixty-eight miles of 



Railways and Waterways. 303 

canals, which had cost $265,000,000 (;{^ 5 3,000,000). 
Nearly two thousand miles of canal had, however, been 
abandoned, having been rendered valueless by the 
superior facilities offered by railroads. Many of the 
canals still worked were reported not to be paying ex- 
penses, and part of these also will no doubt soon be 
abandoned. The freight traffic on canals in 1880 
amounted to twenty-one million forty-four thousand 
two hundred and ninety-two tons, yielding a gross in- 
come of $45,000,000 (;^9,ooo,ooo). 

The early history of navigation in America presents 
as many curious contrasts and interesting facts as do 
other divisions of the history of American progress. 
From beginnings which to us seem ludicrously small 
and crude, the greatest results have come. At the be- 
ginning of the century a successful steamboat had not 
been built. For twenty or thirty years inventors in 
France, Scotland, England, and America had been 
working and planning to apply a principle which they 
saw was perfectly applicable ; but lacking knowledge of 
one or two little essentials, they only passed from fail- 
ure to failure, yet constantly getting nearer and nearer 
to success. John Fitch and Oliver Evans are the 
names of the earliest representatives of America in this 
great struggle. 

After each experimenter had contributed some new 
light, an American engineer, Robert Fulton by name, 
gathered, in 1807, the multiplicity of lights into one 



304 Triumphant Democracy, 

great flame, and made practicable by the help of all 
what each had tried in vain to achieve by himself. 
Fulton's '' Clermont " was the first commercially suc- 
cessful steamboat ever built. A boat of one hundred and 
sixty tons burden, she was launched on the Hudson in 
1807, and ran over a year as a passenger boat between 
New York and Albany. The first steamboat of the 
Mississippi Valley was built by Fulton in 181 1, and was 
called the " Orleans." She had a stern wheel, and went 
from Pittsburg to New Orleans, more than two thou- 
sand miles, in fourteen days. The next year Henry 
Bell, of Scotland, built the '^ Comet," of thirty tons, 
which plied between Glasgow and Greenoch, and in 18 13 
sailed around the coasts of the British Isles. In 1819 
the " Savannah," three hundred and eighty tons burden, 
crossed the Atlantic from America, visited Liverpool, 
St. Petersburg, and Copenhagen, and returned. Nine- 
teen years later, the " Great Western," one thousand 
three hundred and forty tons, and the " Sirius," steamed 
across the Atlantic from England, and only two years 
afterwards, namely 1840, the present justly celebrated 
Cunard line was established, inaugurating an era of 
ocean travel which has revolutionized human life, and 
brought the old and new worlds within six days of 
each other. On a Sunday afternoon in August last, I 
sailed from Queenstown upon the Cunarder " Etruria," 
and on Saturday afternoon the noble ship v/as mov- 
ing up New York Bay. Just six days from harbor 



Railways and Waterways. ' 305 

to harbor. That was my last trip across the ferry ; 
contrast it with my first, seven weeks upon a saiUng 
vessel ! 

Internal navigation has an equally interesting his- 
tory. The earliest transportation by water was ef- 
fected by means of keel-boats. These drifted down 
well enough with the current, but had to be forced 
up stream with setting poles. The keel-boat was 
long and narrow, sharp at the bow and stern, and of 
light draft. From fifteen to twenty hands were re- 
quired to propel it. The crew, divided equally on 
each side, took their places upon the running boards 
extending along the whole length of the craft ; and 
each man, setting one end of a long pole in the bottom 
of the river, brought the other to his shoulder, and 
bending over it, with his face nearly to the plank, ex- 
erted all his force against the boat, treading it from 
under him. While those on one side were thus passing 
down in line to the stern, those on the other, facing 
about, were passing towards the bow, drawing their 
poles floating on the water. The keel-boatmen kept 
their rifles constantly within reach in case Indians 
should attempt to surprise them. Their journeys often 
lasted several months. These keel-boatmen, living a 
semi-barbarous life, developed traits more befitting the 
aboriginal savage than the descendants of Europeans. 
Human life with them appears to have had little more 

sanctity than the lives of the animals they shot on the 
20 



3o6 Tritiniphant Democracy, 

river-banks. The descriptions of the now extinct keel- 
boatmen, left by contemporary writers surpass in hor- 
rible detail anything ever written of Western cow- 
boys or miners. They have now disappeared before 
steamboats and civilization as completely as the wilder- 
nesses amongst which their lives were mostly spent. 
With other barbarisms of " the good old times/' they 
have sunk into oblivion. R. I. P. 

One of the earliest packet lines we read about is the 
following : 

"On the nth of January, 1794, a line of two keel-boats with 
bullet-proof covers and port-holes, and provided with cannon and 
small arms, was established between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, 
each making a trip once in four weeks." 

The defensive acquipment of these keel-boats is very 
suggestive. Nothing enables one better to contrast 
" now " and '' then." 

It is interesting to read how our fathers occasion- 
ally compared the comforts of their days with the dis- 
comforts of our grandfathers ; how proudly they spoke 
of improvements, and how delighted and content they 
were with accommodations which seem to us comfort- 
less and mean. Here is a characteristic sample, written 
about 1845, when steamboats, uncomfortable and slow, 
were everywhere replacing lines of stages or horse- 
packets. 

" In leaving Bangor, Maine, in a steamboat, though only for a 
short trip, I am thereby reminded of the difference which has taken 



Railways and Waterways. 307 

place in our city, and throughout the country, in the mode of trav- 
elling between the present time and only twenty years since. I say 
twenty years, because it is about twenty years since I left the pa- 
ternal home, and in the good sloop ' Betsy' took passage for Bangor, 
where we arrived in safety after eight days' toil. The usual mode of 
travelling then, from Bangor, was by the lumber coasters ; in which 
passengers, male and female, were stowed away in the few berths 
in the cabin, or sprawled around upon the uncarpeted floor. There 
was indeed a semi-packet with a few extra berths hung round, with 
a narrow and rather scanty red bombazette frill. But mean as 
these accommodations may now (1845) be considered, they afforded 
the best means of conveyance between Bangor and Massachusetts, 
and during the rainy seasons in the spring and fall — the only con- 
veyance ; for instead of three daily stages west, as now, the mail 
was carried once a week only, and then on horseback between 
Bangor and Augusta. During the winter, to be sure, Moses Bur- 
ley conveyed the mail, and occasionally a passenger or two in a 
sleigh with a tandem team ; and during the summer in a ricketty 
covered wairon. . . . Then there was no small mail route to 
any of the towns above Bangor, and the old register in the monthly 
advertisement of the postmaster, of two fingers' long, enumerated 
letters for the whole region round about. These reminiscences 
have brought vividly to mind the appearance of the village as it 
was then. There were but five brick buildings erected, including 
the old distil house, that has since been removed to give place to 
the City Point Block. There were but eighteen stores — a few me- 
chanics' shops — one bridge, and that the Kenduskeay, where toll 
was required — the court-house, now city hall — a wooden gaol — 
three taverns, and a few dwellings.'* 

How delightfully confidential this old writer is ! He 
has long since been gathered to his fathers, and even his 



3o8 Trhimpha7it Democracy, 

name is forgotten, but he must have been a good man, 
who took an intelligent interest in what he saw. 

Though steamboats offered greater facilities and 
comfort to travellers than sloops, or stages, yet they 
were miserably conducted, and often dangerous. In- 
deed, the frequency of collision and explosions was 
appalling. It became common to have " safety-barges " 
towed by the steamboat ; and an illustration of a 
boat of this character appended to an advertisement 
in the Commercial Advertiser for June i6, 1830, 
shows that the engine and boiler (and apparently 
the paddle-wheel) were placed right at the bow, as 
far away as possible from the passengers on the 
"safety-barge." In 1834-5 Miss Martineau found 
steamboat travelling in the West proverbially danger- 
ous. She says: 

"I was rather surprised at the cautions I received through- 
out the South about choosing wisely among the Mississippi steam- 
boats ; and at the question gravely asked, as I was going on board, 
whether I had a life-preserver with me. I found that all my 
acquaintances on board had furnished themselves with life-preserv- 
ers, and my surprise ceased when we passed boat after boat on the 
river delayed or deserted on account of some accident." 

Since that day the stringent regulations which pro- 
vide for governmental inspection of all boats, have 
made steamboat travel upon the rivers as safe as it is 
delightful. An excursion from St. Louis or Cincinnati 
to New Orleans upon one of the floating palaces which 



Railways and Waterways. 309 

now traverse the lower Ohio and Mississippi ranks as 
one of the most enjoyable modes in which a hohday 
can be spent. 

The traffic floated upon these Western rivers will 
surprise many. Take the Ohio, for instance ; a compe- 
tent authority has stated that the total of its trade 
from its head at Pittsburg to its mouth at Nev/ Cairo, 
about a thousand miles, exceeded in 18748800,000,000, 
or ;£" 1 60,000,000, a sum greater than the total exports of 
the nation about which v»^e hear so much. It is upon 
the Ohio that the cheapest transportation in the world 
exists. Coal, coke, and other bulky articles are trans- 
ported at the rate of one-twentieth of a cent., one-forti- 
eth of a penny per ton per mile. This is made possible 
by means of barges, many of which are lashed together 
and pushed ahead by a steam tug. The current, of 
course, carries along the floating mass. The steamier 
has little to do but to guide while descending and to 
tow the empty barges back. The records of 1884 show 
that there were owned in the city of Pittsburg for 
use on the river four thousand three hundred and 
twenty-three vessels, including barges, with a tonnage 
of one million seven hundred thousand tons. One hun- 
dred and sixty-three of these were steamboats. Tv/enty 
thousand miles of navigable waterways lie before these 
Pittsburg craft, and many thousand miles more are 
ready to be opened by easily-constructed improve- 
ments in the lesser streams. This work the general 



3IO Triumphant Democracy, 

government is steadily performing year after year, as 
well as improving the existing navigation. Even to- 
day a boat can start from Pittsburg for a port four 
thousand three hundred miles distant, as far as from 
New York to Queenstown and half-way back, or as far 
away as the Baltic ports are from New York. Said I 
not truly, that Nature made Britain only as a small 
model and the Republic full working size? 

From what a small acorn has the mighty oak of 
river navigation grown ! Here is the very first proph- 
ecy of the coming events connected with the use of 
these great streams, and from whom, of all men, should 
such a prophecy more fittingly come than from a 
minister ? Here are the words of the Rev. Manasseh 
Cutter, D.D., LL.D., of Ipswich, Massachusetts, who 
was at once minister, scientist, statesman, and the 
agent of the New England and Ohio Company, which 
started at Marietta, Ohio. Blessed man, he it was 
who succeeded in getting passed the famous ordinance 
of 1787, which prohibited slavery in the old North- 
west Territory, and secured that fair domain forever to 
freedom. Here is the prediction he made in a pamph- 
let published in 1787 : 

" The current down the Mississippi and Ohio, for heavy articles 
that suit the Florida (Mississippi) and West Indian markets, such 
as Indian corn, flour, beef, timber, etc., will be more loaded than 
any stream on earth. ! ! ! ! It was found by late experiments 
that sails are used to great advantage against the current of the 



Railways and Waterways. 311 

Ohio ; and it is worthy of observation that, in all probability^ 
steamboats will be fou7id to be of infinite service in all our 
river navigatioji." 

That was written twenty years before Fulton's prac- 
tically successful application of steam to navigation, 
and a quarter of a century before the first steamboat 
which ever ploughed the Western rivers was built at 
Pittsburg. Six years after the prediction about steam- 
boats the country hailed, as a v/onderful evidence of 
progress, the inauguration of a regular line of sail and 
oar boats between Cincinnati and Pittsburg. Two 
boats were built for the line. They made the round 
journey every four weeks, so that every tv/o weeks a 
traveller had a chance to start, and take a two weeks 
journey on the beautiful river. I wish, as I write, that 
we could do so now. This was our Nile in a dahabeah 
right here at home. Why do not we try it now ? 
What could be more delightful than the Ohio in a 
small boat moved by oar and sail ? We have not the 
time, we say. Ah, ladies and gentlemen, we have not 
the sense. 

But just listen to the precautions deemed essential, 
as late as the beginning of the century, which the ad- 
vertisement sets forth : 

" No danger need be apprehended from the enemy, as every 
person on board will be under cover made proof against rifle or 
musket balls, with convenietit portholes for firing out. Each 
of the boats is armed with six pieces carrying a pound ball, also a 
number of good muskets amply supplied with ammunition." 



312 Triumphant Democracy. 

So the tedium of the journey, you see, was Kkely to 
be reheved by a skirmish now and then with the noble 
savage, and our travellers were not expected not to 
shoot back from under their ironclad cover. The first 
steamboat troubled the waters in 1811. In 1810 we 
find Cramer s Magazme Almanac making the startling 
announcement : 

" A company has been formed for the purpose of navigating 
the river Ohio, in large boats, to be propelled by the power of 
steam-engines. The boat now on the stocks is one hundred and 
thirty-eight feet keel, and calculated for a freight, as well as a pas- 
senger boat, between Pittsburgh and the falls of the Ohio." 

It is gratifying to learn that in one year the 
" New Orleans," for such was the name, actually cleared 
$20,000 (;^4,ooo). No wonder the building of steam- 
boats rapidly increased. There is nothing so creative 
as a good dividend. 

The steamboats plying between New York and Bos- 
ton, and also upon the Hudson between New York and 
Albany, have always impressed the foreign traveller as 
unequalled. The dimensions of some of the floating 
palaces are noteworthy. The tonnage of the " Pil- 
grim," for instance, is three thousand five hundred 
registered tons, making her the largest inland steamboat 
in the world ; speed, twenty knots per hour. She car- 
ies one thousand four hundred passengers, and is 
lighted by nine hundred and twelve electric lamps. 

Miss Martineau has left a description of boat travel- 



Railways and Waterways, 313 

ling on the Erie Canal in New York State. Compare 
the following with our floating palaces and Pullman 
cars ! 

" On fine days," she writes, " it is pleasant enough sitting out- 
side (except for having to duck under the bridges, every quarter of 
an hour, under penalty of having one's head crushed to atoms) and 
in dark evenings the approach of the boat-lights on the water is a 
pretty sight ; but the horrors of night and wet days more than 
compensate for all the advantages these vehicles can boast. The 
heat and noise, the known vicinity of a compressed crowd, laying 
packed like herrings in a barrel, the bumping against the sides of 
the locks, and the hissing of water therein like an inundation, start- 
ling one from sleep — these things are very disagreeable, 

" The appearance of the berths in the ladies' cabin were so re- 
pulsive that we were seriously contemplating sitting out all night 
when it began to rain so as to leave us no choice." 

This journey from Utica to Schenectady, a distance 
of eighty miles, took twenty-two hours, while the 
packet to Rochester, one hundred and sixty miles, took 
forty-six hours ; much longer than is now required to 
go from New York to St. Paul, Minnesota, one thou- 
sand three hundred and twenty-two miles. 

In the short fifty years under review, we have dis- 
placed the stuffy, slow, canal boat as a mode of travel 
for the limited express ; the small steamer with its 
safety barge for the floating palaces. 

If there is anything calculated to make man thank- 
ful for the blessings which he enjoys in this last quar- 
ter of the nineteenth century, it is the study of the con- 



314 Triumphant Democracy. 

ditions of life under which our ancestors lived. Not 
that we can form even an estimate of them. Discom- 
forts v/hich would make life unendurable to us were 
unnoticed by them, and probably they suffered in many 
ways at v/hich we cannot even guess. If the record of 
their miserable mode of life were complete, the picture 
would v/ithout doubt be even more repulsive than it is. 
Auguste Comte has gravely propounded a religion of 
humanity which he says is worshipful because of its 
victories over nature, and over the discomforts by which 
the life of primitive man was surrounded. There have 
been religions founded on less worthy grounds than 
these. Man has indeed played a wonderful part in the 
world ; and nothing can be more marvellous than the 
way in which he has subjugated the forces of nature, 
and yoked them to his chariot and his boat. 

But let us be modest, for as sure as fate those of the 
next generation, looking back upon this, our present 
life, are to contrast their happier condition with ours 
and pity us as we have ventured to pity our forefathers. 
The march of humanity is upward and onward, for all 
the countless ages to come. Improved physical con- 
ditions react upon mental conditions and some day man 
is to read with surprise that once there was upon earth 
a state of warfare between divisions called nations, that 
Europe once continually taught nine millions of men 
how best to butcher their fellows, and called this vile 
work a profession. The coming man v/ill marvel that 



Railways and Waterways, 3 1 5 

intemperance prevailed in these barbarous days, that 
there were paupers and criminals without number, and 
that even in Britain the many were kept dov/n by the 
few, that the soil there was held and used by a class, 
and that a million sterling was taken from the public 
revenues every year by one family and spent in vulgar 
ostentation or riotous dissipation, a family which was an 
insult to every other family in the land, since it involved 
the born inferiority of all others. He is to read of all this 
as we now read of the armored keel-boat and the horse 
locomotive, and thank his stars he was not born as we 
have been before the dawn of civilization. " As one 
man's meat is another man's poison," so one age's 
civilization is the next age's barbarism. We shall all be 
barbarians to our great, great, grandchildren. 

We have not travelled far yet, with all our progress 
upon the upward path, but we still go marching on. 
That which is, is better than that which has been. It 
is the mission of Democracy to lead in this triumphant 
march and improve step by step the conditions under 
which the masses live ; to ring out the Old, and to ring in 
the New ; and in this great work the RepubHc rightly 
leads the van. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

ART AND MUSIC. 

" The study of art possesses this great and peculiar charm, that it is 
absolutely unconnected with the struggles and contests of ordinary life. 
. . . It is a taste at once engrossing and unselfish, which may be 
indulged without effort, and yet has the power of exciting and to gratify 
both the nobler and softer parts of our nature, the imagination and the 
judgment, love of emotion and power of reflection, the enthusiasm and 
the critical faculty, the senses and the reason." — GuizoT. 

"Of all the liberal arts, music has the greatest influence over the pas- 
sions, and is that to which the legislator ought to give the greatest encour- 
agement. A well composed song strikes and softens the mind, and pro- 
duces a greater effect than a moral work, which convinces our reason, but 
does not warm our feelings, nor effect the slightest alteration in our 
habits." — Napoleon at St. Helena. 

Half a century ago, it was the fashion in Europe to 
decry anything American, and to sneer at even the sug- 
gestion of culture in the United States. A country with- 
out historical or poetical associations, devoid of all the 
sources from which the genius of the Old World had 
derived its inspirations — in short, a new country whose 
energies must for generations be directed in practical 
channels can not hope to compete, it was argued, in the 
fine arts with nations whose traditions and culture 
reach back for centuries. In 1824 a contributor to 
Blackwood's Magazine wrote : 



Art a7id Miisic. 317 

" The fine arts, generally, are neglected by the Americans. By 
this I mean, that they, the Americans, do not themselves cultivate 
them. They have foreign musical composers and sculptors, 
among them, most of whom are indigent or starving, but none oi 
their own. Architecture is hardly in a better state. I know of no 
capital American architect." 

The writer then makes one exception to his sweep- 
ing declaration — painting. 

" In this the Americans have made a surprising proficiency ; 
surprising, not only by comparison with what they have done in 
every other department ; but surprising (if we consider their num- 
bers, infancy, and want of encouragement), when compared with 
what we ourselves have done, or any other people, during the 
same period." 

He then cites, in support of this assertion, the 
names of Copley, West, Trumbull, Rembrandt Peale, 
Allston, Morse, Sully, Stuart, Leslie, Newton, and 
Chester Harding, but ends by qualifying his praise with 
the remark that the most celebrated of these men were 
educated in Great Britain, and some of them born 
there. 

Another class of critics went still further and as- 
serted that a genius for art was incompatible with a 
republican form of government. ^* It would seem,'* 
says a writer, of about the same time, in the London 
Quarterly Review, " that a high and refined genius for 
art is indigenous to monarchies, and under such a form 
of government alone can it flourish, either vigorously 



3i8 Tritcmphant Democracy, 

or securely. The United States of North America can 
never expect to possess a fine school of art, so long as 
they retain their present system." 

Art indigenous to monarchies ! Did any one ever 
hear such an absurdity ? The great lav/ is that each 
shall produce fruit after its kind, but this genius makes 
a monarchy produce the greatest of all republics, the re- 
public of art. In art, the source of that which gives 
the finer touches to human life, all is republican; there 
is no trace of hereditary privileges within its bounds ; 
it is as free, as unstained of these injustices as the 
American Republic itself. Art asks not, 

" Wast thou cottager or king, 
Peer or peasant ; no such thing." 

Who knows or cares who Michelangelo's father was; 
or what was Beethoven's birth, or whether Raphael was 
an aristocrat, or Wagner the son of a poor actuary of 
police ? Just imagine monarchy in art — a hereditary 
painter, for instance, or a sculptor who only was his 
father's son, or a musician, because born in the profes- 
sion ! What claims from birth have Liszt, Rubenstein, 
Gluck, or the Scotch laddies from their heather hills, the 
sons of shepherds and tradesmen ; the Millaises, Orchard- 
sons, Petties, Hunters, and Blacks, but from the re- 
publicanism of art. Our rulers these, in art, by virtue 
of the universal suffrage of their fellows. The royal vio- 
linist's parentage gives him no place in art which he has 



Art a7id Music, 319 

not earned, nor do the creditable etchings or sculptures 
of the royal princesses advance them one iota beyond 
the merit of their work. Nor is it in the power of Vic- 
toria, nor can it be her wish, to advance them one step 
in the republic of art, were she twenty times their 

mother. 

" A king can make a belted knight 
A marquis, duke, and a' that," 

but let him try his hand upon creating ranks in the 
commonwealth of art, of music, and of literature, 
and where is he ! The aristocrats there are better 
born than he himself because heaven-born ; " nobles 
by the right of an earlier creation, priests by the 
imposition of a mightier hand." Millais and Leighton, 
Benedict and Sullivan v/ere knighted by the monarch, 
but these rulers in art and music have not yet recog- 
nized Her Majesty or any of her family in their repub- 
lics beyond the stage of " Honorable Mention." The 
Queen dispenses her degrees, even to a peerage, for 
brewing beer or playing court lackey. In the republics 
of art and letters, as Her Majesty finds, our rulers are 
much more fastidious. The standard is different. If 
Art be, as she is, a most jealous mistress, she is as just 
as she is exacting and no respecter of persons. There 
is nothing monarchical about her. Nay, when the 
monarch leaves the tinsel of official life and rises to real 
work in the higher domain of art, her drawings are pro- 
nounced good, and by so much she is an artist. Her 



320 Trhimphant Democracy, 

books — for letters, too, like art, are republican — are 
most creditable in this, that a queen should have 
thought about making a book at all ; for it is true all 
the same that " a book's a book although there's nothing 
in't," and the effort to write a book is in itself praise- 
worthy. Whatever a person of high rank achieves in 
the higher realms of art deserves handsome acknowl- 
edgment. The royal family of England to-day should 
receive, and I pay them the compliment to believe they 
do receive, more genuine satisfaction from their literary 
and artistic labors than from their rank, and would value 
distinction in the republics of art, music, and letters, if 
acquired, beyond rank in society — which can confer no 
honor, because purely accidental ; for such, my readers, is 
the effect of this republican atmosphere in letters and 
art upon all who once enter its charmed circle and 
breathe its sweet influences, that even these royal peo- 
ple, exalted by a fiction in political life, would be the 
first to repel with proud indignation the slightest inti- 
mation that their works were to be judged by any lower 
standard than the republican test — by the suffrage of 
the people, in comparison with the performances of the 
sons of shepherds, delvers, weavers, and ditchers, their 
equals in the Republic. This is highly creditable to 
them. Such as have contributed, however humbly, to 
art, music, or literature — beginning with Her Majesty 
herself — are to be held in special honor. They have 
their places in the republic of art. Were the Prince of 



Art and Music, 321 

Wales animated, like them, with the true spirit of art 
and letters, it might extend to his ideas about position, 
and then he could not accept the throne except by 
a vote of his fellows calling him to it, as the person best 
fitted to serve the State. He would scorn place granted 
for any reason but for his ability to serve. His motto 
can only in this way be lived up to. 

Death levels all ranks ; the republics of art and of let- 
ters do no less. Contestants for place in these gracious 
commonwealths are stripped of all distinctions and start 
upon equal terms. The equality of the citizen is the 
fundamental law upon which is founded ail that brings 
sweetness and light to human life. Thus, my friends, 
art is republican, literature is republican, religion is re- 
publican. (No hereditary privilege in the church.) 
Every good is republican. That alone which is value- 
less, hurtful, and unjust is monarchical ; but fortu- 
nately, as we have seen, the poison of hereditary rank 
is confined to very narrow limits, beyond which it is 
not recognized. 

This curious writer, who would have monarchy 
allied with art, built his theory upon the exploded idea 
that only monarchs and the aristocracy, which flutters 
around courts, could or would patronize the beautiful. 
That theory is unfortunate, in view of the fact that 
the best patrons of art are the Americans, and the mon- 
archy, at least, is not conspicuous for its treatment of 

art or artists. Music and art, like literature, flour* 
21 



32 2 Triumphant Democracy. 

ish in our day, not by the patronage of a class, but 
from popular support. Nothing flourishes in our day 
but through the support of the people — monarchy itself 
must play to them and please them for its daily bread. 
One breath of popular displeasure and it becomes a 
thing of the past. 

It seems strange, in the light of the present, that 
any one could read history so awry as to lead him to 
the conclusion that monarchy favors art or literature. 
But it is too late to render necessary any refutation of 
such assertions. Time has proved its falsity, and we 
may now safely relegate it to the curiosities of litera- 
ture. But there is a modicum of truth in the assertion 
of the writer in Blackwood of sixty years ago, that the 
Americans did not then cultivate the fine arts. A fev/ 
painters, whose names are still pointed to with pride by 
their countrymen, had enlivened the drear monotony of 
our art horizon, but they were Americans in little miore 
than the accident of birth. Most of them were born 
under the British flag, and the art of all was but a 
reflection of foreign schools and methods. Nor does 
this militate against their skill as artists, nor against 
the right of Americans to include them among their 
countrymen. It is well to remember that France had 
no art till Da Vinci and Primaticcio showed the way ; 
and that in England Holbein, Lely, and Van Dyck 
made possible a Reynolds and a Gainsborough. It is 
perhaps a little remarkable that these early American 



Art and Music, 323 

painters, who won as much credit abroad as at home, 
should have left little inspiration behind them, for it is 
certain that those who immediately succeeded them did 
not attain to a similar reputation. Perhaps this is to 
be accounted for in the fact that the energies of the 
people were directed by the exigencies of their sur- 
roundings into more practical channels than the pursuit 
of the beautiful. In the building up of a new country 
there is little time for art cultivation; the establish- 
ment of a political and social system and the develop- 
ment of industrial resources must precede and furnish 
the foundation on which the superstructure of art may 
rise. Nature must be conquered before she can be 
admired. Men must be fed and clothed ere they can 
moralize. 

About the beginning of the period to which we 
have constantly referred — of fifty years ago — American 
art began to rise from its dark age, as we may charac- 
terize the period immediately succeeding that of the 
colonial painters. Up to that time there had been no 
training schools, no public galleries of any consequence, 
and but a small audience capable of appreciating good 
work. In 1826 the National Academy of Design was 
organized in New York, under the presidency of Samuel 
F. B. Morse, as the successor of the American Academy 
of Fine Arts, which died after the fire of the same year 
had destroyed its art collection. Similar institutions 
had been founded early in Philadelphia and in Boston, 



324 Triumphant Democracy, 

but the National Academy has always exercised a 
paramount influence in the development of American 
art. 

About ten years later the American Art Union, an 
incorporated institution for the distribution, by lot, of 
works of art, came into existence, and during more 
than a decade aided much in educating the people, 
and in bringing into notice many artists who might 
otherwise have found it difficult to win recognition. 
But this gain was loss ; the influence of the lottery 
system must have transcended a hundred-fold any pos- 
sible advantage gained through it by art. Happily the 
day for such gambling is over, but we meet with the 
evil still, where one would least expect it. There is a 
moral in the story of the poor parishioner, who re- 
gretted to his minister that he could not pay his 
quarter's pew rent. 

*' Been gambling in stocks, I suppose," said the 
minister, testily. *^ No, sir, not that." '' Well, specu- 
lating in oil, then." " No, sir ; I went to your church 
fair, sir, and was roped into so many lotteries." Tableau. 

Several small public galleries like those of the 
Athenaeum in Boston, and of the Historical Society in 
New York, and a few private collections were found in 
different parts of the country, which all exercised a 
considerable influence in raising the standard of popu- 
lar taste. People began to buy pictures, and, as was 
natural, began by buying very poor pictures. Euro- 



Art and Micsic. 325 

pean dealers, taking advantage of the comparative ig- 
norance of the country in art matters, flooded the 
principal cities with alleged examples of the old mas- 
ters, which found a ready sale thirty or forty years ago, 
but which gradually disappeared as their worthlessness 
was understood, and now it would be difficult to find 
one of these early art treasures of America in any re- 
spectable house unless it may have been preserved 
among the rubbish of the garret. The experience 
thus gained was of the utmost value. The American, 
with his quick perception, soon learned to distinguish 
between the good and the bad, and though his taste may 
in some cases seem a little 'Moud " to the European con- 
noisseur, he seldom buys anything which is absolutely 
worthless. He is recognized now in the European 
markets as one of the shrewdest, as well as one of the 
most liberal buyers. Throughout the world, whenever 
art treasures come under the hammer, the American 
will be found in competition with nobles, and even 
with crowned heads, and he is no mean competitor, for 
he carries a pocket full of dollars, and is not afraid to 
spend them where he is sure of getting his money's 
worth. Thus, during the past twenty years, there has 
been a constant flow of works of art to the United 
States. There is no city of importance in the country 
which has not its public gallery of painting and of 
sculpture, as well as many private collections in the 
houses of its citizens. These latter are often put on 



326 Tritimphant Democracy, 

exhibition as loan collections, and exert a most bene- 
ficial influence in creating a taste for art. 

Of course the United States can scarcely hope to 
form art collections comparable with those of the Old 
World, unless some unforeseen revolution should break 
up the great museums of some of its capital cities, 
when we might hope, and, indeed, expect, that many of 
their treasures would gravitate westward. But while 
the old masters are thus denied to us, we have some con- 
solation in knowing that a large proportion of the best 
modern works are brought to this country. I have ex- 
cellent authority for the assertion that the United 
States now possesses more and finer examples of the 
modern French and German schools of painting than 
are to be found in Europe. The modern Spanish and 
Italian schools are also well represented, the English 
school not so well, American taste gravitating rather 
to the realism of the French than to the romantic 
idealism of the British school. 

It is useless for the critics to attempt to e:xplain the 
extraordinary disproportion between the influx of Brit- 
ish and French art into America by the assertion that 
the fine art dealers in the United States are mostly of 
French and German origin. Even if this were true, the 
dealers would not hesitate to import English pictures 
if there was a market for them. They purchase largely 
of English engravings, because there is a demand for 
them, and they can be had at a price which leaves a 



Art and Music. 327 

good margin for profit ; they do not buy English paint- 
ings because they are held at prices much higher than 
in proportion to the talent displayed than are the works 
of French and German artists. This is sufficient in itself 
to account for the numerical preponderance of these 
two schools of art in the United States and for the 
gravitation of American taste in their direction. I 
would not draw any invidious comparison, but I am not 
sure — if I am called upon for a further explanation of 
the phenomenon — that the prevailing fashion of buying 
French paintings may not have a still more serious 
justification, for whatever the London critics may 
preach concerning the decadence of the French school, 
the Salon is still, as it was under the Empire, the highest 
art tribunal in the world. 

The foreign reader must not infer from what I have 
said of the American predilection for the French school 
of art that the Americans have no painters of their 
own. They have good painters in all departments of 
art, while in several branches they are able to compete 
with any other country in the world. Their landscape 
school is unexcelled and in marine painting they are 
fast approaching the standard of the British school. 
In portraiture they are equal to the English and 
French painters, and in some respects they excel the 
latter, being free from the academic tricks which de- 
tract from the dignity of Gallic art. In genre they are 
not far behind the French and German painters. In 



328 Tritimphant Democracy, 

history and allegory they are as yet weak, though 
several of the younger painters, now studying under 
French and German influences, show signs of phenom- 
enal ability which may soon bring America to the fore 
in these departments also. It may be urged with some 
show of justice that these painters are Americans in 
little more than birth and name, and that they ought 
properly to be classed among the French and Germans, 
under whose guidance they have been educated and 
have won their laurels. But if so strict a rule of classifi- 
cation were adopted we should have to give Poussin and 
Spagnoletto to the Italians and, to take a more mod- 
ern case, send Alma-Tadema back to his home in the 
Netherlands. Art is cosmopolitan and should have no 
country. Whatsoever land possesses the best schools 
and the best facilities for instruction through the pos- 
session of the master-pieces of the past, that land will 
attract students from every other part of the world ; 
and so long as the great galleries of the Old World exist 
so long will American students cross the ocean to study 
what can never under any present possibility be found 
at home. 

America has developed within the past half-century 
a school of sculpture which has won recognition both 
at home and abroad, though a visit to the national 
capital and to the public squares of some of the 
larger cities would scarcely induce such an opinion. 
Many of her sculptors have been educated under Ital- 



Art a?td Mtisic, 329 

ian influences, but have drawn their inspiration rather 
from the antique than the modern Italian school. 
Some who stand foremost at home to-day have not en- 
joyed the benefit of foreign instruction, and their 
works, consequently, possess more of the flavor of the 
soil, so to speak, than do those which have been ex- 
ecuted in strict accordance with the academic rules 
transmitted from antiquity. It is possible that these 
may develop in time into a purely American school of 
sculpture which shall be recognized and take its place 
as such in the art history of the world. 

In the sister art, architecture, though America's 
brief century of existence has not brought to light any 
transcendent genius like him who created the Taj Mahal 
or elevated the dome of St. Peter's, there has been suffi- 
cient advancement to meet the requirements of the coun- 
try. American architecture in the past cannot be said 
to have had any individuality, but to have been rather 
the result of external influences, the reflection of the 
art developed in Europe through centuries of growth. 
Like all imitations, the imported style was generally 
exaggerated, and often applied to uses for which it was 
never intended. Thus, a half-century ago the Greek 
style was the prevailing fashion, and not only public 
buildings, like the custom-houses of New York, Phila- 
delphia, and Boston, but also churches, town-halls, and 
even dwelling-houses were constructed in the semblance 
of classic temples. In the suburbs of any of the East- 



330 Triumphant Democracy, 

ern towns may still be seen white painted wooden 
dwellings, with pretentious porticoes of Ionic or Cor- 
inthian columns, combined with the absurdity of mod- 
ern windows and green blinds. 

The Greek style in time gave way to the Gothic, and 
the classic tem.ple was superseded by a nondescript 
building modelled or supposed to be modelled after the 
mediaeval cathedral. Some good churches were built 
in this style, the most successful one being Trinity 
Church in New York, erected in 1840-45 ; but, as the 
Greek style had been before, it was soon applied to 
uses utterly foreign to its purposes, and all kinds of 
buildings, including dwelling-houses, were decorated 
with Gothic gables, pinnacles, and battlements. This 
fashion in turn had its day, and in time the Gothic 
was restricted mostly to ecclesiastical edifices, while 
domestic architecture went through a variety of trans- 
formations involving all the styles known to the ages. 
In some of the larger cities, New York especially, the 
exigencies of space gave rise to narrow dwellings built 
in uniform blocks, generally of brick, faced with brown 
sand-stone, from which they were called "■ brown-stone 
fronts." Some of these long blocks of narrow dwel- 
lings, which caused the Grand Duke Alexis to remark 
that " the Americans live in bins," are really very hand- 
some, especially in Fifth Avenue, New York, a street 
of city residences unequalled elsewhere in the world. 
During the past two decades a change has gradually 



Art and Mtisic, 331 

been wrought in the style of city dwellings, and the uni- 
form Italian brown-stone fronts have been superseded 
by a variety of styles, each building having a marked 
individuality which distinguishes it from its neighbors. 
Many of these new residences will bear favorable com- 
parison, considered architecturally, with any in Europe, 
and in internal conveniences and modern appliances 
have not their equal anywhere. This is as true of the 
dwellings built of late years in other places as of those 
in New York, and the day is not far distant when 
every considerable town in the United States will have 
palatial residences rivalling those of the Old World. 

The architecture of municipal and mercantile build- 
ings in America is in a great degree, like domestic archi- 
tecture, the reflection of foreign examples, modified of 
course to some extent by new requirements. Some of 
the more pretentious structures, though perhaps amen- 
able to criticism as works of art, are notable examples 
of their kind and will bear comparison with similar 
buildings in Europe. The Capitol at Washington, 
though displeasing to Mr. Fergusson's critical eye, is 
yet a noble building and notwithstanding its short- 
comings better adapted for legislative uses than the 
British Houses of Parliament ; and the later public 
buildings at Washington, especially the French Renais- 
sance structures for the use of the War and State De- 
partments, are unexcelled. Many of the State capitols, 
notably those of New York, Connecticut, Ohio, and 



332 Triumphaiit Democracy, 

other Western States, are worthy of any country. In 
mercantile architecture the Americans are abreast of, 
if not in advance of the rest of the world. The stores 
or shops of all of the larger cities are equal to any 
in European capitals, and the magnificent structures 
erected by insurance, banking, and other corporations, 
are fit for the uses of even the merchant princes of 
Democracy. There is nothing elsewhere in the world 
to compare with these structures. Buildings equally 
fine are to be found in that great Western city, Chi- 
cago. One block there has thirteen stories, the highest 
hardly less elaborate in decoration or less perfect in its 
appointments than the lowest. Indeed, the rental of 
offices high up is greater than that of those nearer 
earth. Lifts shoot skyward with a swiftness that leads 
the unaccustomed aeronaut to think he has left part of 
his anatomy on the ground floor, and they drop down 
again with equal rapidity. The thirteenth story is thus 
made as accessible as the third, while it possesses the 
advantages of purer air, and less noise. 

*' Music, heavenly maid," early visited America, but 
finding no congenial abiding place among the sons of 
toil who were battling with the wilderness, returned to 
quieter scenes, to await the cessation of the struggle. 
She has now taken up her permanent abode in the Re- 
public; and finds herself at home even in the far West, 
among the roughest scenes the continent can show. 



Art afzd Music. 2>Z?> 

The history of music in America is a record of spir- 
ited enterprises and discouraging failures alternating 
with almost rythmic regularity. Artists of the first 
order, like Malibran, made a temporary success even 
fifty years ago ; but it is only recently that a regular 
opera has been established in any American city. Some 
of the most successful performances took place in New 
York half a century ago ; yet at periods it was almost 
impossible to get together half a dozen fiddles. A Ger- 
man who visited New York in 1828, wrote : 

" The orchestras are very bad indeed, as bad as it is possible 
to imagine and incomplete. Sometimes they have two clarinets, 
which is a great deal ; sometimes there is only one first instrument. 
Of bassoons, oboes, trumpets, and kettledrums one never sees a 
sight. However, once in a while a first bassoon is employed. 
Only one oboist exists in North America, and he is said to live in 
Baltimore. In spite of all this incompleteness they play symphonies 
by Haydn and grand overtures; and if a gap occurs, they think 
' this is only of passing importance,' provided it rattles away again 
afterwards. . . . It is a self-understood custom that the leader, 
with his violin, takes part in every solo. Hence one never hears a 
solo played alone by one person. This is probably done in order to 
get a fuller sound." 

This was three years after Garcia's Italian opera ap- 
peared in New York, and several amateur musical clubs 
had long been in existence. The practical and unro- 
mantic character of the English people long delayed 
acceptance of the opera in Britain. As Addison amus- 
ingly says: 



334 Triumphant Democracy. 

"There is nothing- that has more startled our English audience 
than the Italian recitative at its first entrance upon the stage. 
People were wonderfully surprised to hear generals singing the 
word of command, and ladies delivering messages in music. Our 
countrymen could not forbear laughing when they heard a lover 
chanting out a billet-doux, and even the superscription of a letter 
set to a tune. The famous blunder in an old play of ' Enter a king 
and two fiddlers solus ' was no longer an absurdity, when it was 
impossible for a hero in a desert, or a princess in her closet, to 
speak anything unaccompanied with musical instruments." 

In America the same cause continued to operate at 
a much later date. A native critic has written a passage 
about his countrymen similar to the above. Speaking 
of the opera-goers of fifty years ago, he says: 

"If the inquisitive American looked in a critical way at the in- 
tellectual meaning of the Italian opera, he found little to satisfy his 
mind. On the contrary, he found it ridiculous — if he succeeded 
at getting at the plot of the fantastic libretto — to see an actor 
making such a fuss about killing himself or anybody else on 
account of some unsuccessful love affair, but who could not accom- 
plish his bloody design on account of too much singing. He 
wondered why two lovers, having a secret to tell each other, should 
go about shouting it out in endless repetitions and endless ca- 
denzas. He became impatient with a troop of soldiers, thundering 
ferocious threatening war-songs, but who, having so much to sing, 
could not move a step from their posts. All these things puzzled 
him, were a mystery to him, and annoyed and bewildered him. 
They on the whole, appeared to him ' much ado about nothing.' " 

Viewed in this matter-of-fact way, the opera does 
seem absurd ; and we need not wonder that it long re- 



Art and Music, 335 

ceived scant recognition by our practical, long-headed 
people, who ask the why and wherefore of everything 
which claims their approval. At the present day, how- 
ever, opera is flourishing like an indigenous plant, and 
New York supports two great opera houses, besides 
numerous theatres for opera comique, etc. Every im- 
portant city has its opera house. Miss Nilsson found 
in a young Western town the best building for sound 
she had ever known. Jeffrey's *^ American Guide to 
Opera Houses and Theatres " contains particulars of 
nearly four thousand such buildings distributed all over 
the continent. Opening it at random, I find amongst 
hundreds of others the following : 

" Centralia : On Chicago, Kansas City & Denver Short 
Line of the C. & A. and W. St. L. & P. Railroads. Population, one 
thousand five hundred. 

" Threlkeld's Opera Hall. Good stage and scenery. Terms 
reasonable. 

" People's Theatre. First-class stage and scenery. Stage 
twenty-five feet by forty-eight feet. Piano. Rent, twenty dollars, 
etc." 

Take Oshkosh, away out in Wisconsin, two hundred 
miles from Chicago, with a population of twenty-two 
thousand ; 

" New Opera House. Stage, forty-two by seventy feet ; seats 
one thousand one hundred. 

" Turner House. Stage thirty by fifty ; seats eight hundred. 

"Wacker Hall. Thirty by fifty-four ; seats one thousand one 
hundred.'' 



336 Triumphant Democracy, 

Here is Paris in Texas: 

"Babcock Opera House. Seats one thousand. 

" Paris Opera House. Seats four hundred and fifty." 

Idaho was a wilderness a few years ago, as was 
Montana. Now I see Eagle Rock, Idaho, with a total 
population of only seven hundred, has 

"Chamberlain Hall, with organ. Seats six hundred. 
"Glen's Hall. Seats three hundred.'' 

Butte City, Montana, has 

" New Opera House. Seats eight hundred. 

*' Thomas' Ampitheatre. Seats one thousand five hundred. 

"Grand Opera House. Seats one thousand." 

But its population is ten thousand, so that it does not 
rival Eagle Rock, with its seven hundred population 
and Temples of the Muses to seat nine hundred. 

The theatres and opera houses of the principal cities 
in America are, of course, much superior to those in 
Europe, because they were built recently and have 
improvements unthought of years ago ; besides, the 
greater wealth of the country justifies greater expendi- 
ture upon everything. Musical societies are found in 
every Western town of importance. Milwaukee, with 
a history of only half a century, had its Musik Verein 
thirty-six years ago. In 185 1 this enterprising club 
performed the ** Creation," the '' Seasons," parts of the 
'' Messiah," and parts of Rossetti's " Jesus in Gethsem- 
ane." Every year since it has performed works of like 



Art and Music, 2>Z1 

character. The city has been a centre from which 
musical culture has radiated throughout the North-west. 
Cincinnati is another such centre. Situated midway 
between the Eastern cities and New Orleans, it has 
since early days been specially benefited as the calling- 
place of itinerant operatic and dramatic companies. St. 
Louis, Louisville, Chicago, Indianapolis, Detroit, Buf- 
falo, Pittsburg, Denver, San Francisco, New Orleans, 
are all prominent examples of Western cities in which 
music is generally cultivated. 

My experience in the two lands leads me unhesitat- 
ingly to accord the palm to the old home for vocal 
music. There is no society in the Republic to compare 
with those which delight the masses with vocal music in 
the monarchy. To hear one of the best choirs in 
Britain sing an oratorio is one of the greatest delights. 
Their voices seem smoother, and, above all, the enun- 
ciation is perfect. The American voice is thin to begin 
with — the effect of climate, I fear — and to this is added 
the abominable practice of slurring over or cutting off 
troublesome syllables. The American woman is the 
most intelligent, entertaining, and most agreeable 
in the world. If she had her English sister's voice and 
enunciation she would be perfect ; but these she has not. 
There is a *' snippiness" about her words which follows 
her even in oratorio. The men, of course, being more 
deliberate of speech are not such great sinners in this 
respect. America has still much to learn from the 

22 



33^ Triumpha7it Democracy, 

parent land in vocal music. I wish she would begin 
to take lessons soon. On the other hand, America 
leads Britain in instrumental music — probably owing to 
the large infusion of the German element with which 
it is blessed. I have heard several competent foreign 
musicians pronounce the Thomas orchestra superior to 
that of Richter in London, or to any other orchestra in 
Europe, and I have sufficient faith in this opinion to 
challenge the best London orchestra to a contest. Let 
us have an international orchestral trial, our performers 
going to London to play upon alternate nights with 
Richter's fine band, and theirs coming to New York 
next season for the return trial. To excel in instru- 
mental music would be another feather in the cap of 
Democracy. Even to prove a w^orthy second to Rich- 
ter's orchestra would not discredit us. The cause of 
music could not but be benefited by the friendly family 
match. 

This year witnesses an ambitious attempt to found 
a national Conservatory of Music which may rival the 
academy founded last year in Britain. The enterprise 
is in excellent hands and promises to give the Republic 
a new institution of which it may justly be proud. A 
school has already been started and pupils are being re- 
ceived. It is held that the time has passed when the 
gifted sons and daughters of the Republic should find it 
necessary to go abroad for the highest musical instruc- 
tion. Even more daring is the attempt to produce 



Art and Music, 339 

American opera, which is now being made by these en- 
thusiastics of the National School of Music. So far 
its success has surprised the public. The operas are, of 
course, the work of foreigners, but they are sung in 
English — or must we not begin to call it the American 
language ? '' Oh ! " said a distinguished lady to another 
the other evening as she listened to the opera in her own 
language, '' it's so queer to understand the language of 
opera, isn't it ! " '^ I always did, dear !" was the response. 
Sooner or later, the new idea is bound to conquer. 
The Republic will produce not only a National School 
of Music, but in time develop a national music itself, 
for it is impossible that so numerous and so rich a 
people and one so unusually fond of music should 
long remain without an institution of the highest char- 
acter for musical culture. We hail this present effort, 
therefore, with great pleasure and commend it to the 
support of the American people upon whom, and 
not upon any governmental aid, it must fortunately 
depend. 

The material progress of the Republic is not the 
only progress made during the triumphant march of 
the Democracy. In art and in music the nation is 
advancing with a rapidity which belies the assertion 
that the tendency of Democracy is to materialize a 
people and give it over to sordid thoughts ; that the 
unrestrained exercise of personal liberty ends only in 
the accumulation of dollars. Republicanism does not 



340 Triumphant Democracy, 

withhold from life the sweetness and light Avhich mainly 
make it worth living. Hard, unremitting toil quickly 
seeks appropriate relaxation. The history of music and 
art in America is in miniature their history throughout 
the world. First came struggles with nature — hard- 
fought battles, with corresponding adaptation of tem- 
perament. Then with victory came leisure, and human 
nature was moulded into harmony with its milder con- 
ditions ; and then as Dryden says : 

" At last divine Cecilia came, 
Inventress of the vocal frame ; 
The sweet enthusiast, from her sacred store, 
• Enlarged the former narrow bounds, 
And added length to solemn sounds, 
With nature's mother-wit, and arts unknown before." 

Unless the greatest and best of the race are wholly 
at fault in their estimate of the influence exerted upon 
men by art and music, we may accept the taste for 
these with which the Democracy can safely be credited, 
as an augury of promise. Life in the Republic is be- 
ing rapidly refined — the race for wealth ceases to be 
so alluring. Ostentation in dress or living is '' bad 
form." In due time fashion may decree that its devo- 
tees must be neither loud nor extravagant. Music and 
art create the taste for the most refined, not for the 
coarse expression of our surroundings. It is now cer- 
tain that in love of art and music the Democracy even 



Art and Music. 341 

to-day is not behind the Monarchy, and evidence is 
not wanting that it is entering more and more into, 
and elevating, year after year, not only the few, but 
the great masses which make up the national Hfe of 
the Republic. 



CHAPTER XV. 

LITERATURE. 

** He hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book ; he hath 
not eat paper, as it were ; he hath not drunk ink ; his intellect is not re- 
plenished ; he is only an animal, only sensible in his duller parts." — 
Shakespeare. 

This was not written of the omnivorous American, 
for he has eaten paper, as it were, and drunk ink ever 
since he was born. These are his daily food. As far 
back as the year 1836, which brings us to the beginning 
of the fifty years under review, a writer in the Philadel- 
phia Public Ledger for March 25, describing the extent 
of newspaper reading in America says : 

" In the cities of New York and Brooklyn, containing together 
a population of three hundred thousand, the daily circulation of 
the penny papers is not less than seventy thousand. These papers 
are to be found in every street, lane, and alley ; in every hotel, 
tavern, counting-house, shop, and store. Almost every porter and 
drayman, while not engaged in his occupation, may be seen with 
a penny paper in his hand." 

This was the year when in England the newspaper 
tax was reduced from 4 pence (8 cents) to a penny (2 
cents) per copy, when the usual price of London papers 
was 5 pence (10 cents) or 6 pence (12 cents). The great 



Literature, 343 

mass of the people, even if they could read, could only 
obtain a news-sheet by sharing among many the cost of 
the luxury. The majority of the intelligent had to be 
content with hearing articles read from papers to the 
company in a hall or coffee-room. Several factors 
have conspired to make the American people great 
newspaper readers. The Puritan settlers were active 
political partisans. Everything which concerned gov- 
ernment was of deepest interest to them ; and it 
was among such as they that the first manuscript 
news-letters had their largest circulation. The descend- 
ants of these hardy pilgrims inherited that jealous 
regard for the rights of the citizen which in the six- 
teenth century manifested itself in political non-com- 
formity, and in the eighteenth century was the propel- 
ling force of the American Revolution. Every man, 
woman, and child of New England at that trying time 
habitually discussed politics and sought news with an 
eagerness that we never feel, except under the stimulus 
of a great political crisis. In 1800 the young Republic 
had two hundred newspapers, of which several were 
dailies. In 1810-11 disputes with England revived 
men's interest in politics, an interest which became 
doubly keen when war was declared, and every able- 
bodied man took from its nail his trusty flint-lock in 
preparation for battle. Conceived in political tribula- 
tion, born amid the throes of a severe political struggle, 
and nursed in the midst of political excitements, the 



344 Triumphant Democracy, 

young American nation developed an aptitude for gov- 
ernment which republican institutions have ever since 
tended to strengthen. Where every man is a voter, 
every man is a politician ; and a nation of politicians is 
the journalist's favorite field. A further cause is the 
education which during the century has been so widely 
diffused. Teach a man how to read and you at once 
invest him with the appetite for reading. And what 
can be of greater interest than the world's history read 
in contemporary lights ? Again, newspaper taxes have 
never existed in the United States. As a consequence 
journalism attained maturity in America earlier than 
in Europe. These combined factors have made the 
American nation greater newspaper readers than any 
other people. The Republic has aptly been called the 
editor's Paradise ; for certainly except in the "wild 
West," where revolvers are jocularly said to be as 
necessary to editors as ink-stands, journalists do have 
pretty much their own way. 

In 1880 the number of periodicals of all classes 
published in the United States was eleven thousand 
three hundred and fourteen. Of these more than four- 
fifths are devoted to news, politics, and family reading. 
The remainder are technical publications, relating to 
trade, industry, the professions, science, etc. More 
than three-fourths of the whole are weekly publica- 
tions, ten per cent, are monthlies ; daily newspapers 
form rather less than ten per cent. Ten thousand five 



Literature, 345 

hundred and fifteen periodicals are published in the 
English language, and six hundred and one in German. 
The remaining percentage is contributed in the follow- 
ing languages, in this order : French, Scandinavian, 
Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Welsh, Bohemian, and Polish. 
There is, moreover, a Portuguese paper in New York, a 
Chinese paper in San Francisco, and a Cherokee one 
at Tahlequah, Indian Territory. In none of these lan- 
guages does the proportion of periodicals reach one per 
cent, of the whole. The combined issue of the peri- 
odical press exceeds thirty-one millions. The copies 
printed aggregate, in a year, one billion three hundred 
and forty-four million, giving an average of two copies 
a week to every family. 

The growth of American newspaper literature is no 
less astonishing than the growth of so many other 
things American. The first census of the press was 
taken in 1850, though Mulhall gives an estimate for 
1840. The number of newspapers in 1850 was about 
eight hundred and thirty ; ten years later it had in- 
creased to two thousand five hundred and twenty-six. 
In i860 it reached four thousand and fifty-one ; in 1870 
five thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, while ten 
years later it had nearly doubled, reaching the number 
of eleven thousand three hundred and fourteen, or 
more than four times as many as in 1850. In cir- 
culation the increase has been even greater. In 1850 
the average circulation per issue was five million one 



34^ Triumphant Democracy, 

hundred and forty-two thousand one hundred and 
seventy-seven ; it leaped to thirteen million six hun- 
dred and sixty-three thousand four hundred and nine 
in i860; to twenty million eight hundred and twenty- 
four thousand four hundred and seventy-five in 1870, 
and in 1880 it reached the enormous number of thirty- 
one million seven hundred and seventy-nine thousand, 
six hundred and eighty-six. The morning newspapers 
of the principal cities consist of eight pages, like those 
of London, and are sold at the same price, 2 cents 
(i penny.) 

The republican sheets are characterized by greater 
vivacity than the monarchical — more spicy news, and, 
above all, a much more attractive mode of displaying 
it. A leading English editor once remarked to me : 
*' We have no ' editors ' who rank with the American, 
but many writers who excel yours." This was a just 
criticism. We see, however, in nothing more strongly 
than the newspaper press of the two countries, the ope- 
ration of that law of assimilation which tends to make 
their products alike. The American press is rapidly 
acquiring greater dignity, and the British press more 
sparkle. They will soon be as like as two peas, and 
the change toward each other will improve both. There 
are many things other than the press, in which a mix- 
ture of the old and new would be equally advanta- 
geous. 

The falsest impressions of a country are created in 



Literature, 347 

the minds of foreigners by its newspaper press, because 
people forget that the press deals in the uncommon, 
the abnormal. A column is given to some startling 
monstrosity, a three-headed calf, for instance, but it 
doesn't follow that American calves, as a rule, pos- 
sess more than the usual number of head pieces seen in 
Europe. An unruly refugee with twenty aliases kills a 
Texan rowdy in a bar-room, farther away from New 
York than Cairo is from London, and the press on both 
sides of the water gives the fullest details. It isn't a 
corollary at all that human life is not respected in- the 
Republic. 

A defaulter absconds, and the world is filled with the 
news, not a word is said about the thousands of men in 
positions of trust who guard their charge to the last 
penny. My experience with newspapers upon both 
sides of the Atlantic has shown me how incorrect ideas 
are instilled of the one land in the other by the press. 
A New York sheet, referring to the meeting of a few 
hair-brained cranks in Hyde Park, a motley crowd, 
whose appearance made me feel as Falstaff did about 
his soldiers, '^ I'll not march with them through Coven- 
try, that's flat," lays this episode before its readers 
headed in large type : " A GRAND REPUBLICAN 
Rally." And many readers think the Prince of Wales 
has not the ghost of a chance. 

I wish it were so indeed, and I honor these cranks 
very much — all real reformers are cranks in their day. 



34^ Triumphant Democracy, 

Pym, Hampden, Cromwell were, and John Bright him- 
self was a very pronounced one till he brought the 
nation up to his level ; now he is a regulation states- 
man in " good form." But truth compels me to say 
that the republican rally in Hyde Park was not 
much of a rally ; it was like the great ball which the 
Princess wished to give in Ottawa upon court lines of 
etiquette and could not. In Canada, society was all in 
vulgar trade. There was not enough left to make a 
ball at all. In like manner, a Socialists' procession 
marches through the streets in Chicago, probably not 
an Am^erican in the array — a parcel of foreign cranks 
whose Communistic ideas are the natural growth 
of the unjust laws of their native land, which deny 
these men the privileges of equal citizenship, and hold 
them down as inferiors from their birth — and forthwith 
European papers alarm the timid and well-to-do 
masses of Europe by picturing this threatened assault 
upon property as the result of republicanism, the 
truth being that in no other country are the rights of 
property held so sacredly as in America. Legislation 
to fix values of anything here, as values of land are 
fixed in Ireland, for instance, would be decried from 
one end of the land to the other. The only true and 
abiding conservatism is that engendered by republican 
institutions — conservatism of what is just, what is 
good — for these no party seeks to destroy. 

In like manner the books of travel written by 



Literature, 349 

visitors to any land must in their very nature be mis- 
leading. What strikes the stranger is not the thousand 
and one matters which are alike to those at home, nor 
the thousand occurrences which are common to him 
at home or abroad ; it is the one exceptional matter, 
thing, or event which he notes down at once and says, 
" I can work that up— it is so strange." Very true, only 
it may be just as exceptional, just as strange to the 
native. The false impression is conveyed to the public, 
for whom he writes, by implying that it is the common 
and usual custom, or occurrence. Few travellers know 
how to arrive at the real every-day life of people, and 
yet from this alone is a just estimate of that people 
to be obtained. As the two divisions get to know each 
other better, they will understand that in the main, 
human life is very much the same on both sides of the 
Atlantic. It is after we cross the Mississippi and come 
to the *' great West" — that new region which the 
hardy pioneer is rapidly bringing into civilization — that 
life takes on different features. As might be expected 
the difference in the press there gives us the best idea 
of the chasm which still divides the settled State from 
the unsettled Territory. 

When a party of prospectors have found a mineral 
vein in the West, about the first thing they do after de- 
ciding to build a city, is to start a newspaper. With 
characteristic Western eccentricity this is named the 
Leadgulch Screamer , or the Peek-a-Boo Avalanche. Then 



350 Triumphant Democracy. 

a press and type are brought in, the most literate of the 
gang invests in a table, an arm-chair, and an inkstand, 
and being already furnished with a revolver, he begins 
to '' run " the paper. As the town grows, competing 
editors come in, and soon the struggle for existence 
sets in with an acerbity of feeling not excelled in those 

poetic 

" Dragons of the prime 

Who tore each other in their slime.'' 

Specimens of '' slime " are carefully collected by 
European bookmakers and quoted as representative of 
American journalism. After the rough pioneering has 
been done, the gentler evidences of white civilization 
soon manifest themselves. Fine streets lined with 
handsome buildings and towering churches spring up 
on the site of the wilderness; and literature takes upon 
itself a milder form. Present editors in Western towns 
which have originated and grown in this way, are men 
of culture, often graduates from Eastern universities ; 
and these are not the men who pen the articles so 
largely quoted from by bookmakers. Dickens's amus- 
ing representation of the editorial combat in '* Pick- 
wick " will keep in memory the fact that a few years 
ago British editors used inks of concentrated gall and 
venom. 

In periodical literature the child land has for a few 
years excelled its mother. In Harper s Magazine and 
the Century the art of editing has joined the arts of 



Literature, 351 

printing and engraving and has surpassed anything 
before known in the history of periodical Hterature. 
These magazines, which for years have been educating 
the American people in principles of true art and in- 
stilling a love of pure literature, have done more than 
all the rest of the world's periodical publications to raise 
the artistic standard of printing. Not in America alone, 
but in England, has their influence been potent for 
good ; and undisguised imitations of these magazines 
now appear even in Germany, which not many years 
ago seemed to have a monopoly of good engravers. 
It is in vain that any English or German magazine can 
hope to rival its Republican compeer ; not because the 
necessary talent and skill do not exist, or at least, that 
it could not be created, but simply because it will not 
pay to employ it. The American publisher prints a 
quarter of a million of copies. This number has even 
been exceeded. The expense for art and matter, dis- 
tributed among this huge edition, is a trifle per copy. 
What is the poor publisher to do who has not forty 
thousand subscribers ? And this not one shilling maga- 
zine has in Britain or Germany. He yields the race 
perforce to the republican. Harper s and the Century 
actually sell more copies in Britain than any Brit- 
ish monthly publication of equal price. Truly their 
venture in England is a strange and startling success. 
Let us note here that as population grows faster in the 
new than in the old land, more and more sure is it 



352 Triumphant Democracy. 

that the American publisher can afford to expend 
greater sums upon his magazine, which means that the 
native publications must encounter fiercer warfare than 
ever. Periodicals of high order for the girls and boys 
of a nation are of vital consequence. The world has 
not anything comparable to the St. Nicholas or Harper s 
Young People. Every friend to whom I have sent them 
in Britain has substantially said : " We have nothing 
like these. Our children watch for their arrival as for a 
great treat. They are devoured." 

It was all very well for the Democracy to supply 
the monarchies with pork and flour, cheese and pro- 
visions, the necessaries of life ; a coarse, material tri- 
umph this, but what are we to say to this exportation of 
food for the mind? If Democracy is successfully to in- 
vade the higher province, and minister to the things of 
the spirit as well as to those of the body, before it is more 
than a century old, what is the Monarchy to set forth 
as that in which it excels? It is, at all events, to take 
the crumbs which fall from the republican magazine 
table. That much is settled, and it is with special pride 
we note the triumph of Democracy in these branches of 
art. The thanks of the Republic are due to Harper s 
and the Century for a successful and I hope a perma- 
nent and a profitable invasion of Great Britain, May 
their circulation never be less on either side of the 
Atlantic. 

American journalists have become noted all over 



Literature, 353 

the world, as indeed have Americans generally, for en- 
terprise and energy. American foreign correspondents 
have revolutionized their profession. Until Stanley 
was sent into equatorial Africa by the New York Herald 
to find Livingstone, such extraordinary missions were 
unknown ; but English journals quickly followed, and 
O'Donovan, brave, bright, and young when he fell in 
the Soudan, was sent by the Daily News to Merv. The 
" Jeannette " expedition was a newspaper enterprise. 
The Bengal famine, the condition of Ireland, the Tunis- 
ian difficulty, the Burmah dispute, the exploration of Co- 
rea, all these and many other matters have come within 
the scope of the modern foreign correspondent. 

It is interesting in this connection to see how the 
Anglo-Saxon race leads the world in journalism. Of 
twenty-three thousand newspapers in the world about 
half are American. Other papers published in English 
raise the total to more than thirteen thousand, leaving 
to the rest of the world — Germany, France, Italy, Spain, 
India, etc., only ten thousand to divide amongst them- 
selves. The English language, gauged by those who 
speak it, is leaving the rest of the world even more hope- 
lessly in the rear. At the beginning of the century our 
tongue was spoken by twenty million people and occu- 
pied only fifth place, coming behind even Spain and 
Russia. It now occupies first place, being spoken by 
more than a hundred million, while French and Span- 
ish have not yet reached the fifties. Since 1801 the 
23 



354 Triumpha7it Democracy, 

English language has advanced from twelve and nine- 
tenths to twenty-seven and one-tenth aliquot parts of 
all European languages. Of three hundred and sixty- 
eight million people now speaking the European lan- 
guages, one hundred million speak English. Of course 
there is little question here as to the coming universal 
language. The world is to speak English, think Eng- 
lish, and read English. The only question is, whether 
it will be aristocratic or democratic English, Queen's 
English or People's English, and there is not much 
question about that. 

When we recollect the great amount of hard manual 
work which has been spent by the American people on 
the subjugation of their vast continent, it is a matter of 
surprise that literature and the gentle arts generally 
should also have attained such development. The hew- 
ing of wood, clearing of forests, the breaking of prairie- 
lands, railroad building, and canal digging are not con- 
ducive to development of the sort of brain which runs 
into books ; and during the early years of the country, 
when brawn rather than brain was in demand, book- 
making received scant attention. The change conse- 
quent upon the cessation of the struggle with nature in 
New England v/as well described by Cullen Bryant at 
a publishers' celebration in 1855. He said: 

"After his (Cotton Mather's) time, in the hundred and fifty 
years which followed, the procession of American authors was a 
straggling one ; at present they are a crowd w^hich fairly choke the 



Literature, 355 

way ; illustrious historians, able and acute theologians, authors of 
books of travels, instructive or amusing, clever novelists, brilliant 
essayists, learned and patient lexicographers. Every bush, I had 
almost said every buttercup of the field, has its poet ; poets start up 
like the soldiers of Roderick Dhu, from behind every rock and out 
of every bank of fern." 

An idea of this increasing literary activity may be 
obtained from the fact that in the publication of origi- 
nal American books the year 1853 shows an advance 
of eight hundred per cent, in less than twenty years. 
In the twelve years ending 1842 there were published 
one thousand one hundred and fifteen works, six hun- 
dred and twenty-three of them being original. In the 
single year of 1853 seven hundred and thirty-three 
new books were published, four hundred and twenty 
of which were original American works. From these 
facts a well-known publisher of that period concluded 
t'hat literature and the book trade had increased 
ten times as fast as the population. In 1884 more 
than four thousand books were published in the Re- 
public. 

To enumerate the tons of paper used for printing 
may be considered a curious way of estimating the 
literature of a nation. Still it has been done, and the 
result is interesting. About one hundred and seven 
thousand tons of paper are annually used in the United 
States, against ninety-five thousand tons in the United 
Kingdom, and seventy thousand tons in France. 



356 Triumphant Democracy, 

Canada, subject and dependent, contrasts unfavorably 
with the Republic in every way, but in none more than 
this. She uses but four thousand tons of paper a year 
— only about two-fifths of the Republic's ratio to 
population. The amount annually spent on books and 
newspapers by the Republic is $90,000,000 (;^ 18,000,000) 
against $80,000,000 (;^ 16,000,000) spent by Britain. 

It is not fifty years since a British critic asked, sneer- 
ingly: *' Who reads an American book?" To-day the 
same critic, if he be living and up with the times, 
will have to reverse his question, and ask : " Who does 
not read an American book ? " A glance at the British 
trade catalogues will show how many American pub- 
lications are reprinted in Great Britain, for the British 
publisher does not hesitate, in the absence of an inter- 
national copyright law, to appropriate any successful 
American work, although he is apt to call his Yankee 
brother hard names for pursuing a similar policy in re- 
lation to British publications. The v/orks of popular 
American historians, American poets, and American 
novelists are all reprinted in England, and are as well- 
knovv^n there as at home. Indeed, it has been said that 
Longfellow is more widely read in Britain than the 
lordly Poet Laureate himself. The very successful 
enterprise of Mr. Douglass, the Edinburgh publisher, 
is a case in point, the series of American stories which 
he republishes, having had a v/onderfully large sale. 
Two American lexicographers have contributed to the 



Literature, 357 

world two of the best English dictionaries, and the 
standard Greek lexicon, published by the University of 
Oxford, is printed from American plates, edited and 
made in New York. 

Some idea of the American demand for books may 
be formed from a few illustrations. The ninth edition 
of the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," now in course of 
publication, has more than fifty thousand subscribers 
in the United States, probably more than five times 
as many as it has in its own home. Besides this, an 
unauthorized edition, a reprint, has had a large cir- 
culation. Let us pause here a moment and try to 
take in the full significance of such a fact as this. The 
*' Britannica " is the one distinctively national work. 
One would think it was published surely for Britain; 
but no, it is not for the parent land, but for the Repub- 
lic that this treasury of all knowledge is prepared. Its 
purchasers are not in Old but in New England — five to 
one. Thus at every point we stumble, as it were, upon 
startling proofs, that the dear old home is becoming 
the satellite of the republican giant whose mass is too 
great to be resisted. Its power of attraction begins to 
draw the smaller body out of its monarchical orbit into 
the great sweep of the republican idea — the equality of 
the citizen. The same firm which imports the " Ency- 
clopaedia Britannica" in the United States, Charles 
Scribner's Sons, of New York, are the publishers of 
the great " Statistical Atlas of the United States." 



358 Triumphant Democracy, 

Nearly eighty tons (one hundred and fifty-seven thous 
sand five hundred pounds) of paper were used in print- 
ing the first edition of this work, which is one of the 
wonderful books of the century — wonderful even in 
America. 

The " American Cyclopaedia," published by D. 
Appleton & Co., New York, has also had an enormous 
circulation, more than a hundred and twenty thousand 
sets, of sixteen volumes each, having been sold by 
subscription, at the average price of a hundred dollars 
the set, making in the aggregate more than $12,000,000 
(;£"2,400,ooo). The same firm have printed more than 
fifty million of '' Webster's Spelling Book," and still 
print and sell a million copies every year. '* Picturesque 
America," a costly work in tv/o large volumes, has also 
had a phenomenal sale, more than a hundred thousand 
copies having been disposed of. Mr. Blaine's book, 
** Twenty Years in Congress," has more than two hun- 
dred thousand subscribers, and General Grant's " Per- 
sonal Memoirs " more than three hundred thousand. 
The sums realized by each of these writers will exceed 
$250,000 (ii"5o,ooo) ; the latter will probably double 
that amount, and I have seen an estimate which placed 
Mrs. Grant's prospective profits at $700,000 (;^ 140,000). 
Milton was glad to get five pounds for *' Paradise 
Lost." Even Macaulay's celebrated check for twenty 
thousand pounds, received for his "■ History," dwindles 
into insignificance compared with the princely com- 



Literature, 359 

pensation awarded to its favorites by the triumphant 
Democracy. 

It is much the same with all standard British publi- 
cations — all have a larger circulation in the Republic 
than in the Monarchy. Spencer, Tennyson, Smiles, 
Morley, the Arnolds (Matthew and Edwin) all have 
larger constituencies in New than in Old England ; 
indeed, the first named, Herbert Spencer, was discov- 
ered and appreciated by American readers before he 
was recognized at home. And here let me, in passing, 
drop a tear over the one sad blot which disgraces the 
Republic. Her laws do not give protection to the 
foreign author. For this I have neither palliation nor 
excuse. It is, since slavery is gone, the one disgraceful 
thing of which, as a nation, she is guilty. It brings the 
blush of shame to my cheek as I think of it. There 
are now signs that the public conscience is awakening 
to the duty of removing the stain. A fair copyright 
act would probably have been passed by Congress at 
its last session but for the jealousies of publishers and 
the somewhat impracticable attitude — if they will permit 
one of their humble members to say so — of our Copy- 
right League. Authors are not as a class distinguished, 
I think, for practical good sense in legislative matters. 
Something must be conceded to publishers on this side, 
and something must be conceded by publishers on the 
other. It is asking too much, or, at least, more than is 
likely to be granted, for publishers abroad, who own a 



360 Triumphant Democracy, 

copyright on a popular author's works which they have 
enjoyed for many years and paid for only on the basis 
of the home market, to insist upon reaping a new har- 
vest on such works in America. If the money would 
go to the author or his representatives the idea would 
not be so unpalatable. 

In like manner publishers here insist that an author 
taking out an American copyright should publish his 
work in America as well as in his own land. It is a 
publishers' quarrel. Had the authors on both sides the 
power to adjust it the Republic would soon be relieved 
from the just reproach of stealing the work of men's 
brains — the most valuable work of all. Ere a new 
edition of '' Triumphant Democracy " be called for, I 
hope to be able to record that a fair copyright act has 
been passed. 

Libraries have multiplied very rapidly. Fifty years 
ago there were few large collections of books in 
America, except in the universities and collegiate in- 
stitutions. Of other libraries prior to 1820 only ten are 
enumerated, and these were mostly of inferior grade. 
Since that period libraries have sprung into being in 
nearly every township or village. They dot the coun- 
try almost as thickly as the public schools ; while State 
libraries have been formed in every territorial division 
of the Union. 

The spirit of local patriotism which characterizes 
equally the native American and the new settler, and 



Literature. 361 

which leads each to think that the particular spot 
of God's earth on which he lives is the best, is a spirit 
which prompts numerous great public works. The 
dwellers in a new settlement are animated by an amaz- 
ing energy and spirit of self-sacrifice in matters con- 
cerning their " city." Public works of all kinds are 
undertaken with feverish eagerness. Men subscribe 
money for the adornment and improvement of their 
town as readily as they would for their particular home. 
One is constantly surprised to find all the evidences of 
advanced civilization in cities of which the foundation 
was laid but as yesterday. Libraries, schools, club- 
houses, churches, theatres, court-houses, bridges, of the 
most elegant designs, are found in towns which had no 
existence a few years ago. Take St. Paul as an ex- 
ample. This young and enterprising city owns no less 
than three public libraries — the State library, with ten 
thousand volumes ; the Historical Society's library and 
museum, with twenty-two thousand volumes ; and the 
Free Circulating Library, with twelve thousand vol- 
umes, to which additions are being constantly made. 

It is estimated that there are twenty-three thousand 
school libraries in America, containing forty-five million 
books — twelve millio7t more thajt all the public libraries 
of Europe combijted. Other educational establishments 
increase this number by two and a half million volumes ; 
and thirty-eight State libraries contribute over a million 
more. The Congressional library, the Astor, the Boston 



362 Triumphant Democracy, 

City, the Philadelphia, the various mercantile libraries, 
the Watkinson Reference at Hartford, and many others 
will raise the grand total to much more than fifty mill- 
ion volumes, a book almost for every man, woman, and 
child in the United States. More than three hundred 
libraries contain ten thousand volumes each, twelve 
contain more than a hundred thousand volumes each, 
and two contain four hundred thousand volumes each. 
Even this statement but feebly shadows forth the truth 
as to the books and periodicals of the country as com- 
pared with those of other lands, for the American is 
not only a reader, but he is above all other men a 
buyer of books. Circulating libraries are not so gener- 
ally used as in Europe. It is when you enter the home 
of the American farmer or artisan that you are struck 
with the number of books and magazines you see — 
the two or three shelves and often far greater number 
filled with them — all of which are his own, except per- 
haps the few stray borrowed volumes which most col- 
lections contain, and which are conscientiously counted 
as belonging to another, to be returned some day, but 
somehow that some day never arrives. There must be 
a special punishment in store surely for such as do not 
return these treasures to their rightful owners. (This 
hint is not without a purpose.) The universal propen- 
sity of the American, young and old, for reading and 
writing, has sometimes seemed to me to lend counte- 
nance to Dogberry's dictum that while a good name 



Literature, 363 

was the gift of God " reading and writing came by- 
Nature." These do seem to be part of the nature of 
the American. 

Triumphant Democracy is triumphant in nothing 
more than in this, that her members are readers and 
buyers of books and reading matter beyond the mem- 
bers of any government of a class, but in this particular 
each system is only seen to be true to its nature. The 
monarchist boasts more bayonets, the republican more 
books. We know which weapon is the. more effective 
in these days. ''The paper bullet of the brain " is the 
moral dynamite of triumphant Democracy — the only 
dynamite which the peaceful and law-abiding republi- 
can ever has occasion or can be induced to use. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE FEDERAL CONSTELLATION. 

" As far as I can see, the American Constitution is th» most wonder- 
ful work ever struck off at one time by the brain and purpose of man." — • 

Gladstone. 

" We hold these truths to be self-evident that all 
men are created free and equal, and are endowed by 
their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among 
which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." 
Round this doctrine of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence as its central sun the constellation of States re- 
volves. The equality of the citizen is decreed by the 
fundamental law. All acts, all institutions, are based 
upon this idea. There is not one shred of privilege, 
hence no classes. The American people are a unit. 
Difference of position in the State, resulting from birth, 
would be held to insult the citizen. One and all they 

stand Brutus-like and 

" Would brook 
The eternal devil to keep his state 
As easily as a king." 

Government of the people, for the people, and by 
the people is their political creed. The vote of an 
Emerson or a Lincoln weighs no more than that of 
the poorest negro. The President has not a privilege 



The Federal Constellation, 365 

which is not the birthright of every other citizen. 
The people are not levelled down, but levelled up to 
the full dignity of equal citizenship beyond which no 
man can go. 

The first voice of the people may not be always the 
voice of God. Indeed, sometimes it does seem to be 
very far from it ; but the second voice of the people — 
their sober second thought — comes nearest to it of any 
tribunal, much nearer than the voice of any class, even 
that of the most highly educated, has ever come in any 
government under the sun. Hence there is no voice in 
all America which has the faintest authority when the 
ballot speaks. 

It has often been objected to this republican theory 
of the State that under it a dead level of uniformity 
must exist. The informed traveller, who knows life 
in America, can be relied upon to dispel this delusion 
and to certify that nowhere in all the world is society 
more exclusive or more varied than in republican 
America. Certainly it is far less so in Britain. The 
difference is that while in monarchical countries birth 
and rank tend to override personal characteristics, re- 
publican society is necessarily founded upon real char- 
acter and attainment. ^' Natural selection " has freer 
play. Congenial persons associate with each other, 
uninfluenced by birth or rank since neither exist. Nor 
has v/ealth of itself nearly so great an influence in 
society in America as in Britain. It is impossible, in 



366 Triumphant Democracy, 

the nature of things, that it should have, because it is 
much more easily acquired, and, what is much more 
telling, much more easily lost. The law of acquisition 
is indeed as free to act in the Republic as in the Mon- 
archy, but then the law of dispersion is also allowed 
full force in the former, where primogeniture and entail 
are unknown and the transfer of land is easy. There 
are but three generations in America from shirt sleeves 
to shirt sleeves. Under such conditions an aristocracy 
of wealth is impossible. The ^' almighty dollar '* is just 
like the restless pig which Paddy could not count, be- 
cause it would not stand still long enough in one place 
to be counted. Wealth cannot remain permanently 
in any class if economic laws are allowed free play. 

The Federal constellation is composed of thirty-eight 
stars, the States, and eleven nebulae, the Territories, 
which are rapidly crystallizing into form. The galaxy 
upon the national flag has grown during the century 
from thirteen to thirty-eight stars, and "the cry is still 
they come." Every decade new stars are coming into 
view, and ere long the entire cluster of nebulae will 
be added to the Federal constellation. They are to 
come forth as the new star in Andromeda came in the 
fullness of time. A new State sweeps into the Federal 
constellation every now and then like 

"A star new-born, that drops into its place, 
And which, once circling- in its placid round, 
Not all the tumult of the earth can shake." 



The Federal Constellation, 367 

The question arises, " How is it possible to govern 
successfully under one head, not this nation, but this 
great continent of nations ? " The answer is, " Through 
the federal or home rule system alone is it possible." 
Each of these thirty-eight States is sovereign within its 
own borders. Each has its own constitution, its own 
parliament consisting of House and Senate, its own 
president, courts and judges, militia, etc., etc. All the 
rights of a sovereign State belong to it, except such as 
it has expressly delegated in common with sister States 
to the central authority, the National Government at 
Washington. 

One provision ensures solidity. Should a dispute 
arise between a State and the central government as to 
what powers are or are not delegated, the decision of the 
Supreme Court of the nation is final and binding upon 
all. The theory is that all their internal affairs are mat- 
ters for the States to deal with and determine, all exter- 
nal affairs are for the nation ; all local matters are for 
the States, all general matters for the nation. The di- 
vision is easily made and maintained. The Constitution 
defines it in a few clauses by stating what the National 
Government has charge of, as seen in section eight 
(appendix). Any powers not here expressly delegated 
to the nation remain in the States, to be exercised in 
any manner they choose. 

The Supreme Court of the nation stands ready to 
inform States or nation of their respective powers. 



368 Triumphant Democracy. 

With the exception of the claim made in the interest 
of the slave-power, that a State had the right to secede 
from the Union, no serious question between State and 
nation has ever arisen. It is difficult to see how any 
can arise, since that has been definitely decided in the 
negative. The integrity of the nation having been 
assured, all other questions must be of trifling import 
and readily adjustable by the Supreme Court, which has 
proclaimed the nation to be " an indestructible Union 
of indestructible States." 

The differentiations shown in the laws of the various 
States, which have resulted from the perfect freedom or 
home rule accorded them in their internal affairs, prove 
that the political institutions best suited to each com- 
munity are thereby ensured, since they must necessarily 
be healthful growths of the body politic. Genuine out- 
births of the people themselves, and therefore certain 
to receive their cordial and unwavering support. The 
number and extent of these differences in laws are sur- 
prising. The customs and habits of cold, cultured, old 
Massachusetts find expression in laws not best adapted 
for tropical, agricultural new Texas, just as the laws af 
England would be found less desirable for Scotland 
or Ireland than those which have been evolved by these 
communities, and which would be still more freely 
evolved by home rule, under their slightly different 
environments. 

These stars, the American States, revolve each upon 



The Federal Constellation. 369 

its own axis, within its own orbit, each according to its 
own laws, some faster, some slower, one at one angle and 
one at another, but around the central sun at Wash- 
ington they tread the great national orbit under equal 
conditions, and constitute parts of one great whole. 
Here, then, we have the perfection of federal or home 
rule in its fullest and greatest development. The suc- 
cess of the American Union proves that the freest self- 
government of the parts produces the strongest govern- 
ment of the whole. 

Let us proceed to note, in the order of their impor- 
tance, the various branches of the National Government. 
We begin, of course, with the 

SUPREME COURT OF THE NATION. 

Beyond and before, and higher than House, or Sen- 
ate, or President, stands this final arbiter, sole umpire, 
judge of itself. More than once Lord Salisbury has 
said that he envied his transatlantic brethren their 
Supreme Court. Speaking at Edinburgh on Novem- 
ber 23, 1882, he said : '' I confess I do not often envy 
the United States, but there is one feature in their in- 
stitutions which appears to me the subject of the great- 
est envy — their magnificent institution of a Supreme 
Court. In the United States, if Parliament passes any 
measure inconsistent with the Constitution of the coun- 
try, there exists a court which will negative it at once, 

and that gives a stability to the institutions of the coun- 
24 



370 Triumphant Democracy, 

try which, under the system of vague and mysterious 
promises here, we look for in vain." He is right, and 
as he becomes more conversant with the results of 
political institutions founded upon the equality of the 
citizen, as I trust he may do, he will, in my opinion, 
find reason to envy many other of these more highly 
developed and in reality deeply conservative institu- 
tions, as much as that which now excites his admira- 
tion. The powers of the Supreme Court seem at first 
sight almost too vast to entrust to any small body of 
men ; but it is to be noted that these powers are 
limited by the fact that it can neither make nor exe- 
cute laws, nor originate anything. It only decides dis- 
putes as to existing laws, should such be properly 
brought before it, and its judgments are in all cases 
confined rigorously to the points submitted. It can- 
not interfere beforehand with any act of the govern- 
ment, nor with any act of the President, but can decide 
only whether such acts or orders are or are not con- 
stitutional, and the reasons for such decision must be 
publicly stated. Thus limited, its decision is final. 
Unless and until decided to be unconstitutional all 
acts of Congress or of the President are valid. 

As may be inferred, the mere knowledge on the 
part of legislative, bodies that their acts are subject to 
the decision of the Supreme Court, keeps them strictly 
within constitutional bounds. There is no use, even 
were there the disposition, to enact any law which is 



The Federal Coiistellation, 371 

not reasonably certain to be sustained. Therefore the 
regulative power of the court upon great questions 
remains practically in abeyance. The power is there, 
which is all that is required. The questions bearing 
upon State relations, which it is called upon to decide, 
are few, and generally of minor importance. As, how- 
ever, all causes which involve considerable «ums be- 
tween citizens of different States can be appealed to 
this court, it is kept busily engaged upon matters of 
large pecuniary interest, but of no political conse- 
quence. 

The court consists of nine judges, vv^ho hold office 
during life, subject, however, to impeachment by Con- 
gress for misbehavior or removal for inability to serve. 
Vacancies are filled by nominations made by the Presi- 
dent to the Senate for confirmation, no appointment 
being complete until confirmed by the Senate. The 
salary of the judges is $10,000 (;^2,ooo) per annum, and 
the Chief Justice receives $500 (;^ioo) more. They can 
retire at seventy years of age upon full pay during life. 
What pittances, I hear my monarchical friends exclaim. 
Perhaps so, but does any court in the world command 
greater respect than this Supreme Court ? Are abler, 
purer lawyers, men clearer in their great office, to 
be found elsewhere? Certainly not. Even my Lord 
Salisbury regrets that there is not such a tribunal in 
Britain. When I see the quiet dignity of the Supreme 
Court Judges in Washington, their plain living, free 



372 Triumphant DeTnocracy, 

from vulgar ostentation, their modest but refined homes, 
and think how far beyond pecuniary considerations 
their aspirations are, how foreign to their elevated 
natures are the coarser phases of position in modern 
society, I cannot but conclude that it would be most 
unfortunate if the emoluments of their positions should 
ever be .made so great as in themselves to constitute 
a temptation, as they are in Britain. The American 
judge in the Supreme Court has no compeer. The 
pomp and parade which surround the entrance of a 
judge in Britain, the sordid pecuniary prize which he 
has secured by the appointment, his gilt coach, and all 
the tinsel of feudalistic times which is allowed still to 
survive under the idea that it adds to his dignity, but 
which borders upon the ridiculous in these days of general 
refinement — all this tinsel would seem most unfitting to 
the republican judge, detracting, not adding to, the in- 
herent dignity of his great position. 

The Supreme Court sits in Washington ; but each 
of the nine judges visits for a part of the year one of 
the nine circuits into which the country is divided, 
and assists the circuit judges. The circuits are again 
divided into districts, each of Avhich has its own court 
and judge. These are all national courts, the judges of 
which are approved by the Senate upon the nomina- 
tion of the President, and hold oflfice during life or good 
behavior. The whole forms the national judiciary, to 
which every citizen has the right of appeal in any cause 



The Federal Constellation, 373 

involving the citizens or corporations of another State. 
We come next to the 

LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT. 

This consists of two Houses, a House of Represen- 
tatives and a Senate, which meet at Washington twice 
a year upon fixed dates, March and December. The 
House is composed of three hundred and twenty- 
five Representatives. Every State sends members in 
exact proportion to its population as shown by each 
decadal census. The number of members is not reg- 
ularly increased. The number of population to each 
Representative is raised ; thus in 1870 every one hun- 
dred and thirty-eight thousand inhabitants returned 
a member ; in 1880 it required one hundred and fifty- 
four thousand. After a census is taken the popula- 
tion is divided by number of members, the quota re- 
quired to return a member being thus ascertained. Each 
State is then informed of the number due to it, and 
arranges its electoral districts accordingly. Thus every 
ten years electoral power is fairly, because equally, ad- 
justed to the satisfaction of all. By so simple an auto- 
matic device the question of representation is removed 
from politics, and settled forever upon the rock of 
fair and equal representation. It never can be settled 
in a free State until equal electoral districts are reached. 
Educated man demands equality, nor can he rest until 
he has obtained it. This secured, he becomes quiet and 



374 Triumphant Democracy, 

contented. Representatives hold office for two years, 
their term expiring with each Congress on the fourth 
of March of every second year. As members are 
always eligible for re-election, and as the practice is to 
return men of ability from term to term, the new 
House is always under the guidance of experienced 
legislators. Members are paid $5,000 (i^i,ooo) per 
year and travelling expenses. 

The power of the purse is as tenaciously held by the 
House in Washington as in London ; all money bills 
originate in it by express provision of the Constitution. 
Alike in this, the two Houses present an entirely dif- 
ferent appearance ; on entering the House at Washing- 
ton the visitor is struck by the contrast. Instead of 
the uncomfortable benches at Westminster and the lack 
of all facilities for reading or writing, the newer House 
presents its members all sitting in good easy chairs, at 
separate desks, like so many good boys at school ; they 
are busily at work with their correspondence, or con- 
sulting books of reference. Pages answer their call. 
They attend to their legislative duties when fresh dur- 
ing the day. When a division is called, instead of wast- 
ing twenty minutes, and requiring every member to 
get up and walk past tellers, the business is done in 
a few minutes without disturbance ; the clerk calls 
the roll of names alphabetically, and each member 
nods or shakes his head, or calls out '' aye" or '* no." 
A record is kept, and result announced, and business 



The Federal Constellation, 375 

proceeds. How simple. Business is not often ob- 
structed in the House. When an orator exhausts its 
patience he is made to sit down by a call for the ques- 
tion, and unless he gets a majority in favor of hearing 
him further, he is ruled out. Yet neither party com- 
plains that this rule has worked serious injury ; no 
party seeks to change it. It has not prevented full 
discussion, and it has enabled the House to transact 
business properly. 

Next in order follows that one American institution 
which has received the unqualified approval of every 
man who has given an opinion upon the subject. I 
never heard even a British Tory utter a word in its 
disparagement. I cannot imagine what a man could 
say except in praise of the 

UNITED STATES SENATE. 

Proud, indeed, may the man be who can style him- 
self " Senator." To this august body each of the States 
sends two members, six years being the term of office. 
These are elected by the legislatures of the States, 
and hence reflect the popular desire. Senators are, of 
course, the adherents of one or other political party, 
as it obtains sway in the various States. As the terms 
of service are so arranged that only one-third of the 
Senators retire, unless re-elected, every two years, the 
tendency is for the Senate to respond somewhat less 



37^ Triumphant Democracy, 

promptly than the Lower House to the changes of 
public opinion. 

The Senate has large powers ; all laws must be 
passed by it as well as by the House. No treaty with 
a foreign power is valid without its approval by a two- 
third vote ; all ambassadors and agents to foreign 
powers must be approved by it. Much has been said 
about the patronage of the President ; but he cannot 
appoint a postmaster unless the nominee is passed 
upon and confirmed by this august tribunal. It has 
been said by more than one political writer that the 
American Senate is the ideal second chamber of the 
world. Some assert that it is the only second cham- 
ber which possesses real power and is permanently 
fixed in the hearts of the masses. It is certainly re- 
garded in America as a great promotion to be elevated 
from the House to the Senate, and it is none the less 
certain that the entire nation regards the Senate with 
pride and affection. All officials in America being paid, 
the salary of a Senator is the same as that of a Repre- 
sentative, $5,000 (;^i,ooo) per year and travelling ex- 
penses. 

Lord Salisbury will be envying this American insti- 
tution as well as the Supreme Court ere long, mark 
you, for his own second chamber gives unmistakable 
evidence of decay, and in good time he may even come 
to see that an elected President is preferable to a 
hereditary ruler. We cannot despair of his reaching 



The Federal Constellation, 377 

finally to the full measure of the political equality of 
the citizen, since he begins so well with the chief 
American institution, the Supreme Court. 

Here is indeed a lucky hit. Since these words 
were written a member of Parliament sends me con- 
firmation of this prophecy. This hopeful student of 
republican institutions, my Lord Salisbury, has said in 
a recent speech : 

" The Americans, as you know, have a Senate. I wish we 
could institute it in this country. Marvellous in efficiency and 
strength ! " 

So, another American institution envied ! Truly 
this former Saturday Reviewer is a more promising 
pupil than Mr. Gladstone himself, and almost equal to 
Lord Rosebery. Nothing easier, my lord, than to get a 
copy of the American -Senate. The secret of its mar- 
vellous strength and efficiency is an open one. You 
know it well. The Senate springs from and rests upon 
the suffrages of the people. There is not a trace of 
hereditary poison in its veins to steal away its power. 
In an elective assembly such as this, a man of real 
pov/er like Lord Salisbury would be twice the man he 
is when leading a set of hereditary accidents. 

Having already obtained Lord Salisbury's endorse- 
ment of the Supreme Court and the Senate, I am en- 
couraged to go a step further and commend for his ap- 
proval the institution he should next endorse, a Par- 
liament of duly paid members elected by equal electoral 



37^ Trhimphant Democracy, 

districts for a fixed term of two years. Until this is 
secured the government of Britain must remain ex- 
posed to every passing gust of popular emotion, and 
hence exercise no steadying effect in periods of excite- 
ment. A British ministry does not govern, but bows 
to the clamor it should withstand. And upon my Brit- 
ish readers let me once more impress the truth that in 
all the elements of true conservatism, in all that goes 
to make up a strong government, a power competent 
to maintain justice and to defeat attacks upon the 
rights or property of others, and when necessary, to 
keep the ship of state with its head against the wildest 
hurricane, the American system, as I must compliment 
Lord Salisbury upon being one of the first European 
statesman to discover, is infinitely beyond the monar- 
chical. The man who knows both well, and has property 
in both lands, may be trusted to tell his inquirers that 
his republican title gives him much the less uneasiness. 
This is further demonstrated by the highest place 
being accorded by the world to the American national 
debt. 

WAR AND TREATY-MAKING POWER. 

In two vital respects the powers of the executives 
of the old and new English lands differ. First, no 
treaty with a foreign power is binding until ratified by 
the Senate. Indeed, as we have seen, no Minister can 
be appointed to a foreign power until approved by this 



The Federal Constellation, 379 

chamber. This vote of the Senate has several times 
kept the administration from entering into injudicious 
arrangements. Even General Grant and his cabinet 
committed themselves to the acquisition of San Do- 
mingo. Recently the late administration was led into 
a very questionable treaty with Spain. The temptation 
for a few men, and especially for one man, to char- 
acterize his administration by some brilliant stroke 
calculated to dazzle the populace at the moment, or to 
appeal to the national vanity, is a source of real danger 
in all popular governments. Not what is perm.anently 
valuable, but what is presently telling, is apt to be con- 
sidered. Against this danger, for which the monarchical 
system has no provision whatever, the republican op- 
poses the cool, deliberate decision of an impersonal 
judge, the Senate. No man's " glory " is brightened or 
dimmed by the decision. What is for the lasting good 
of the nation is thought of — not what will bring tem- 
porary popularity to a cabinet or save a ministry. It 
must surely be a prejudiced mind which does not feel 
that the advantage is here upon the side of the 
younger land. 

The second vital difference is even of deeper import 
than that just recited. In the Republic, war can be 
declared only by the two Houses of Congress, approved 
by the President. Before the sword can be drawn both 
branches of the legislature must be wrought up to the 
pitch of this extreme and momentous act. The House, 



380 Triumphant Democracy, 

the Senate, and the Executive in the person of the 
President, must consider, discuss, and decide the ques- 
tion under surroundings of the deepest solemnity, and 
with the nation — the world — anxiously looking on. 
Every Representative of the people, and every Senator, 
may speak in his place and record his vote for or 
against. Public attention is thus fixed and concen- 
trated upon the crisis, and public discussion enlightens 
the people. Time, precious time, which ever cools the 
passions of men and works for peace, is thus gained, 
and every official, every member of the legislature, 
publicly assumes the fearful responsibility of engaging 
in the slaughter of his fellow men. If ever war be pro- 
claimed by the Republic, which God forbid, since all 
her paths are peace, it will not be the act of one branch 
or another of the government, but the solemn public 
act of all, legislative and executive. Contrast this with 
monarchical countries, in which a few excited parti- 
sans, sometimes only one or two real actors, who sit 
in a close cabinet chamber, commit the people to crim- 
inal war — sometimes to prolong their own tenure of 
office, or to promote some party end. 

My American readers may not be aware of the 
fact that, while in Britain an act of Parliament is 
necessary before works for a supply of water or a mile 
of railway can be constructed, six or seven men can 
plunge the nation into war, or, what is perhaps equally 
disastrous, commit it to entangling alliances without 



The Federal Constellation, 381 

consulting Parliament at all. This is the most perni- 
cious, palpable effect flowing from the monarchical 
theory, for these men do this in "• the king's name," 
who is in theory still a real monarch, although in reality 
only a convenient puppet, to be used by the cabinet 
at pleasure to suit their own ends. Next to the sap- 
ping of the roots of true manhood in the masses, by 
decreeing their inferiority to other men at birth, this is 
the most potent evil which, exists to-day in the British 
Constitution, and it is chargeable solely to the monarch- 
ical system. It does not rank with the first evil, how- 
ever, being mainly material, while the other is of the 
spirit, injury to which is the gravest misfortune which 
can befall a nation. But this vital truth not one of 
the so-called " practical " statesmen of Britain sees 
or will consider, or, perhaps what is nearer the truth, 
will venture to tell. Not one of them, apparently, 
has a soul above cheap corn, which is v/orshipped as 
the highest good. Indignities to the spirit of the 
masses, by which manhood is impaired, they seem 
to argue, may safely pass unnoted, so long as their 
bodies are fed. And yet better, far better, for a 
nation that its food for the body should be dear, and 
equal citizenship be the birthright of the soul. " We 
have many evils to remedy in our political system a 
million times greater than the Monarchy," once said 
to me a prominent statesman and possible prime min- 
ister. I looked pitifully upon him, his eyes blinded 



382 Triumphant Democracy, 

with the dust of conflict and his mind so absorbed with 
trifling party results that he could neither think nor 
see an inch before his face, much less study cause and 
effect. Could he do so, surely he would realize the 
truth that in the royal family, as in a nest, lie the 
origin of all the political evils which afflict his native 
land and which he deplores; all that this able, earnest, 
patriotic man is laboring to remove is only the legiti- 
mate spawn of this one royal family institution, and is 
never to be met with except where a royal family ex- 
ists to breed it. Resolve that the head of the State 
shall be elected at intervals and thus found govern- 
ment upon the true idea — the political equality of the 
citizen — and all the political wrongs of the fev/ against 
the many fall as if by magic. Were I in public life 
in Britain I should be ashamed to waste my energies 
against the House of Lords, Church and State, primo- 
geniture and entail, and all the other branches of the 
monstrous system ; I should strike boldly at the royal 
family, the root of the upas tree from which spring all 
these wrongs. 

Surely the Democracies of Europe have no question 
to consider more vitally important than the war power. 
How many useless wars in the past would have been 
avoided had the republican method prevailed ! How 
many in the future would be prevented by its prompt 
adoption. The masses are ever more pacific than their 
rulers, ever more kindly disposed to those of their clay 



The Federal Constellation, 383 

in other nations, than the rulers are to theirs. The 
people do not share the jealousies of their rulers. If 
the war power lay in the hands of the representatives 
of the people in Europe, as it does in America, there 
would be fewer wars. 

The position of the Republic upon this question of 
war is still further advanced by the fact that both polit- 
ical parties, by special clauses in their declaration of 
principles, have pronounced in favor of peaceful arbi- 
tration of international differences. Thus, before Amer- 
ica can have recourse to arms, no matter what party be 
in power, her adversary must first be offered arbitra- 
tion and decline it. We envy not the nation which 
shocks the moral sense of mankind by refusing this 
olive branch of peace when presented. 

Of all the desirable political changes which it seems 
to me possible for this generation to effect, I consider 
it by far the most important for the welfare of the race 
that every civilized nation should be pledged, as the 
Republic is, to offer peaceful arbitration to its oppo- 
nent before the senseless, inhuman work of human 
slaughter begins ; and for all the just and good meas- 
ures by which the Republic has v/on my love, next to 
that by which she has made me her ov/n citizen, and 
hence the peer of any man, kaiser, pope, or king, thus 
effacing from my brow the insult inflicted upon me by 
my native land at birth, which deemed me unworthy 
the privileges accorded to others — next to that, for 



384 Triumphant Democracy, 

which I will fight for her, if need be die for her, and 
must adore her forever — I thank the RepubHc for her 
position in regard to international murder, which still 
passes by the name of war. 

THE EXECUTIVE POWER. THE PRESIDENT. 

The executive power is lodged in a President, who 
for four years, the term of his office, is the most power- 
ful ruler in the world. He is not only first civil magis- 
trate, but he is commander-in-chief of the army and 
navy, and of all the military forces of the nation, in- 
cluding the militia of the States whenever called upon 
by him. More soldiers would respond to his call than 
to that of any other ruler in the world. The number 
of men who in case of war might be enrolled in the 
militia approaches seven millions, almost every able 
man of whom would consider it his duty to shoulder 
his musket and march at the word of his commander- 
in-chief, the President. What are French, or German, 
or Russian hosts compared to this of the Democracy ! 
Even man for man, as soldiers, they would not com- 
pare with the educated Republican. But this great 
army costs the States but little ; it is always engaged 
in the pursuits of peace, and only to be called upon 
should emergency arise. The President's control over 
the forces is not merely nominal ; it is real. When the 
most popular general in the army, during the Civil War, 
had fought his way to victory, and had the enemy 



The Federal Constellation, 385 

at his feet, it was feared that unsatisfactory terms for 
his surrender might be made. The following telegram 
was therefore sent, which, though bearing the signa- 
ture of the Secretary of War, was written without blot 
or erasure by President Lincoln himself. I have seen 
the telegram : 

"Washington, March 3, 1865, 12 p.m. 
*' Lieutenant-General Grant : 

" The President directs me to say to you that he wishes you to 
have no conference with General Lee, unless it be for the capitu- 
lation of General Lee's army, or on some other minor and purely 
military matter. He instructs me to say that you are not to decide, 
discuss, or confer upon any political question. Such questions the 
President holds in iiis own hands, and will submit them to no 
military conferences or conventions. Meanwhile you are to press 
to the utmost your military advantages. 

"Edwin M. Stanton, 

" Secretary of War.'' 

The General, of course, obeyed. Only a few days 
later General Sherman, just fresh from his '* March to 
the Sea," entered into a convention with General John- 
ston which had political bearings. A telegram was 
promptly sent to General Grant instructing him to 
cancel General Sherman's agreement, and this' was 
done. Suppose, if any one can suppose so lamentable 
an abdication of duty, that in a weak moment the 
American Government had sent a Gordon to arrange 
terms of peace, and that he disobeyed his instructions 

or had presumed to declare war upon his own account! 
25 



386 Triumphant Democracy. 

In the President's opinion a simple order like the fore- 
going would scarcely have met the case. He would 
have had the insubordinate arrested, court-martialled, 
cashiered, and probably shot — no, not shot, but con- 
signed for life to some lunatic asylum. President 
Lincoln could have court-martialled General Grant, or 
General Grant when President could have court-mar- 
tialled General Sherman, or either President dismissed 
either general when at the height of that general's 
power, or arrested him, as Richelieu did his conspiring 
general, '' at the head of his legions," v/ithout raising 
a murmur of popular dissent. The people would have 
reserved their judgment till the next election, and 
probably have enthusiastically approved, as indeed the 
British will approve if they ever see it — such a display 
of masterful power over all others by their elected 
Chief of the State. 

No soldier has ever dreamed of questioning the 
supreme authority of the President, nor has the nation 
ever shown the slightest jealousy of its exercise. Why 
should it, since the President is not above its reach, but 
is only its own duly appointed agent for a specified 
term ; when that expires he transfers his powers to his 
successor and seeks again the ranks of private citizen- 
ship. One returns to Congress as the representative of 
his district, another resumes the practice of law, a third 
becomes a farmer. Neither sinecure, place, nor pension 
is bestowed upon an ex-President. He has been 



The Federal Coiistellation, 387 

supremely honored by his fellow-citizens. He has in 
turn done his duty. The obligation is upon his side, and 
he remains profoundly grateful for the distinction con- 
ferred upon him. The State owes officials little ; they 
owe the State much. Such is the Republican idea. 

The salary of the President is now $50,000 per annum 
(;^ 10,000). An official residence is provided for him at 
Washington, and a country house within a few miles of 
that city. At stated times for some hours each week 
the President receives such respectably dressed and 
well-ordered people as choose to call upon him. Being 
the servant of the people in a country where all citi- 
zens are equal, the humblest has the same right to call 
upon him and shake his hand as the most distinguished, 
he being as much the servant of the one as of the 
other. By many such significant customs the powerful 
President is reminded of what it would indeed be im- 
possible for any one in the land to forget, that the 
sovereignty of the Republic resides not in the servants 
of the State but in the citizen, in every one of whom 
rests an equal share of it. The feelings and desires of 
the citizen it therefore behooves all officials to consider. 

The President selects of his own will and without 
interference the members of his Cabinet, as the British 
Prime Minister does. They are removable at pleasure. 
The President being his own prime minister, the Cabinet 
officers are of equal rank. One difference between the 
two countries in regard to the Cabinet is that, while the 



388 Trmmphant Democracy, 

British Cabinet sit in one or the other House and com- 
municate orally with it, in America the members of the 
Cabinet do not appear in person before the legislature, 
but report to it in writing. This is, however, simply a 
matter of convenience ; there is nothing but custom to 
prevent them from appearing and making their state- 
ments in person, although they could not take any 
part in the proceedings of the legislature. At first 
the President appeared and addressed Congress at 
the beginning of each session, but the plan of placing 
before it a written message as often as deemed nec- 
essary has been preferred. The people would not 
favor a change to the British practice, for the separa- 
tion of the executive and legislative departments is 
held to be of much importance. Either House can 
call at all times upon the President for information 
upon any question connected with affairs, but as the 
call has to meet the approval of the House, the gov- 
ernment is freed from the petty annoyances which 
it is in the power of any injudicious member to in- 
flict under the British system of nightly questioning. 
The President, in like manner, has free access to Con- 
gress, and, indeed, it is his duty to report to it from 
time to time upon all matters of which, in his opinion. 
Congress should be advised. He is also invited to 
recommend measures for its acceptance. 

The President represents the nation in its relations 
with foreign countries, and receives all ambassadors. 



The Federal Constellation. 389 

It is he alone who has the power to pardon offences 
against the laws of the United States. He also has a 
veto power over the acts of Congress, which, however, 
is invalid should the measure vetoed be passed again by 
a two-third vote in both Houses. He is eligible for re- 
election, and several have been elected for two terms, or 
eight years in all, as Washington was, but he having 
declined re-election for a third term lest the of^ce 
should seem too permanent, it has become the custom 
not to elect beyond two terms. 

The Americans have indeed shown wonderful sagac- 
ity in the selection of their Presidents. Considered as 
a body, it would be impossible to equal them in charac- 
ter, ability, education, or manners, by any body of men 
ever born, appointed, or elected to any other station. 
They furnish a striking contrast to the occupants or 
heirs of thrones in every particular. When Britain was 
disgraced by its George HI., the Republic had Wash- 
ington ; and until Queen Victoria ascended the throne 
the comparison had certainly always been in favor of 
the Republic. 

It is the fashion in all things to praise the past and 
claim that "' there were giants in those days," but it is 
nevertheless true, in my opinion, that the Presidents of 
the Republic in our own times have been worthy succes- 
sors even to Washington, Adams, and Jefferson of the 
past. Grant has a firm place in history among men 
possessed of great ability. Garfield's career from a 



390 ■ Triumphant Democracy, 

poor school teacher to the Presidency is exceedingly 
difficult to parallel, while the political genius of Lincoln 
has never been surpassed. It is always well to remem- 
ber that there are giants in our own day too. 

The election of the President and Vice-President is 
not by a direct vote of the people but by a vote of the 
States in an electoral assembly in which each State 
has as many votes as it has Senators and Represen- 
tatives in Congress, that is in proportion to its popu- 
lation. It has been claimed as an advantage of the 
Monarchy that, having a permanent head of the State, 
the excitement and expense of a general election every 
four years is avoided. But, it may be answered, the 
hereditary head of Britain is not a political head at 
all. An automaton would do just as well, for it could 
certainly be used as a model to set the fashions in 
clothes, and probably could be made to lay foundation- 
stones, or open fancy bazaars with little less careful 
coaching and attention than it is generally necessary to 
bestow upon the live figurehead; besides it would be 
much less expensive. The real ruler of Britain is elec- 
ted just as often as a President of the Republic is, for it 
is a curious fact that Parliaments last an average of four 
years, which is the Presidential term. Even as I now 
write, the appeal is being made to the British people, 
Gladstone or Salisbury, as clearly as in the late Presi- 
dential election it was Cleveland or Blaine. It is a fic- 
tion, therefore, that the Monarchy has any advantage, 



The Federal Constellation, 391 

if it would be an advantage, which I dispute, over the 
Repubhc in this respect, for they are situated precisely- 
alike ; they each elect a ruler every four years. The 
excitement and the expense of a general election is far 
greater in the Monarchy than in the Republic, and in 
both equally the head is elected. Besides this. Mem- 
bers of Congress are elected by the States along with 
the Presidential ticket, just as Members of Parliament 
are elected when Gladstone or Salisbury is chosen. So 
that in one sense the election of the President costs 
nothing whatever, as State elections have to be held 
whether a President is to be elected or not, and voting 
for the electoral ticket when voting for Representa- 
tives involves no additional expense. Of course, more 
money is spent in Presidential years, but this is the 
personal contribution of zealous partisans and not a 
charge upon the State. It will surprise Britons to 
know that no sum.s comparable to what they spend on 
political contests are ever spent by the Americans. 
The total sum expended by the national committees 
of all the parties, even in the last exciting Presidential 
contest, did not exceed $600,000 (i^ 120,000). 

The republican election, moreover, is conducted 
with far less riot and disturbance than unfortunately 
characterizes the appeal to the electorate in older Eng- 
land. An American is surprised and shocked at the 
rowdyism often shown at public meetings in Britain. 
He is accustomed to have both sides granted a respect- 



3^2 Triumphant Democracy, 

ful hearing. I have never seen any public meeting in 
America broken up by gangs of the opposite side, nor a 
public man denied a hearing. In this respect the ex- 
ample of the younger political community might well 
be followed by the elder. When the people of Britain, 
however, obtain their full political rights, there will be 
less exciting questions to discuss than those which now 
press for solution, and political gatherings will then be 
more peaceably conducted. It must not be forgotten 
that when a vital issue like slavery was under discus- 
sion in America the right of free speech was often vio- 
lently assailed, as it still is in Britain. 

When the surroundings of the President and the 
royal ruler are contrasted, republican simplicity stands 
out in strong relief. The President walks about as an 
ordinary citizen, wholly unattended, and travels, as a 
rule, upon ordinary trains ; arrives in New York and 
registers at a hotel without previous announcement. 
Beyond a brief mention of the fact in the next morn- 
ing's papers nothing is published about him. As I 
write he has gone to Buffalo, the city of his former 
residence, in order to cast his vote at the election for 
Governor of the State of New York. It will weigh just 
as much as and no more than that of the mechanics 
or laborers whom he will find surrounding the polling- 
booth. Although, go where he may, he will be met 
with quiet evidences of universal and sincere deference 
as President, there will be no parade, no cheers. The 



The Federal Constellation, 393 

equipages of the President in Washington have fre- 
quently been so common as not to rank with those of 
the wealthy residents, and never in any instance have 
they been the richest or best. All the Presidents have 
been poor men. I have known three of them so well 
as to state, of my own knowledge, that they left office 
without means enough upon which to live respectably. 
Of every American President it may be said as it was 
said of Pitt : '' Dispensing for years the favors of the 
State, he lived without ostentation and died poor." 
They have all left office poor and pure. 

One turns from the dignified, simple life of the 
republican ruler to that of the nominal head of Britain, 
feeling that there he meets a coarser and less finely 
developed civilization. The parade and vulgar osten- 
tation which surrounds at every turn the nominal ruler 
of the parent land is indeed in striking contrast. The 
cost to the State is as ten thousand to six hundred 
thousand pounds. The entire family, mother and his 
*' sisters and his cousins and his aunts," are supported, 
and bands of retainers who are supposed to dignify the 
throne. The state processions strike an American as 
grotesque masquerades, and the official coaches in which 
royalty moves about provoke the enquiry, "What circus 
has come to town ? " One instinctively looks inside for 
the clown. This much for the crowned kine^. But the 
contrast is not all in favor of the Republic, for when 
the real ruler, the uncrowned king of Britain, is com- 



394 Triumphant Democracy, 

pared with his fellow-ruler here, then the palm for true 
dignity cannot be awarded to America. Nothing can 
exceed the simplicity of the surroundings of the prime 
minister of that great empire. His salary is only one- 
half that of the President. His official residence is a 
shabby, dingy, old brick house, instead of the noble 
Executive Mansion standing in its own park at Wash- 
ington ; it is simply No. lo Downing Street, and is as 
shabbily furnished as a Nev/York boarding-house. Mr. 
Gladstone lives and Mr. Disraeli lived as sensibly as our 
Presidents, and set just as healthful an example, which, 
however, counts for little in Britain, since the Prime 
Minister is not, like the President, the first personage in 
society. Indeed, when the Liberal Party is in power 
the Prime Minister can scarcely be said, in one sense, to 
be in society at all. He is proscribed, and has no in- 
fluence upon it. But his day approaches ; the Democ- 
racy will soon require that the man who has the people 
of England at his back shall no longer tolerate a king 
before his face. Wherever he appears in Britain, as 
in America, he will take precedence. ''He shall stand 
BEFORE kings." The children of the Prince of Wales 
(the Prince himself, if he be unwise), and the children 
of all of the present dukes and lords of the empire are 
no longer to follow in the train of the pretender but in 
that of the only real, the elected king. It is so in the 
Republic, and what is here is to be yonder. What 
America does to-day, Britain reaches in the next gen- 



The Federal Constellation. 395 

eration. We must reverse the old proverb, " as the old 
cock crows the young one learns " ; now-a-days, it is 
the young cock which leads the crowing. The old one 
does the learning. Room, then, and first place for the 
elected monarch of Triumphant E)emocracy in Britain ! 
We have now passed in review the three branches 
of government, judicial, legislative, and executive, for 
which the Constitution provides. The ease with which 
this instrument has not only done the v/ork over the 
country for Vvhich it was originally designed, but with 
which it has without repeated change quietly enveloped 
in its operation a combination of forty-nine different 
political com.munities, occupying an area of three mil- 
lion square miles, and comprising most of the English- 
speaking race — this is not to be spoken of vv'ithout 
wonder. With one exception — the dispute as to the 
right of a State to withdraw from the Union — a serious 
difficulty has never arisen. It seems as if there could 
be no limit to its powers of absorption. The whole 
world could to-day come into the American Union as 
equal States, and develop peacefully, each after its own 
fashion, no man being less a Briton, a Frenchman, a 
German, a Russian, or a Chinaman, but all becoming 
possessed of a new title, proudest of all, " citizen of the 
world." This wonderful Constitution stipulates for a 
republican form of government. All the Democracy has 
to do is to discard hereditary rulers as useless, danger- 
ous, and therefore to be abolished. Sure is it that they 



396 Triumphant Democracy, 

have deluged the world with wars, put man against his 
fellow, and sought no end but their own aggrandize- 
ment. Not less sure, that they must ever stand in the 
way of the brotherhood of the race which it is the 
mission of Democracy to foster. 

How easily within our grasp, fellow-citizens of the 
world, seems the day when 

" The drum shall beat no longer. 
And the battle flags be furled, 
In the parliament of man, 
The federation of the world." 

We may not look, however, for quite so wide and 
complete a Union. Oceans divide the races, and this 
fact will keep them apart, for permanent political aggre- 
gations must ever be conterm.inous ; but as far as the 
continents of the world are concerned there is no 
insuperable obstacle to their union each into one nation 
upon the federal system. The American continent is 
evidently destined to be so ruled. The European con- 
tinent is slowly consolidating, for there are but five 
great powers to-day instead of the hundreds of small 
ones which existed before the Napoleonic era. A 
league of peace to which each continent will send 
delegates to decide international differences is not 
quite so far in the future as may at first sight appear. 
This would remove from the world its greatest stain — ■ 
war between man and man. 



The Federal Constellation, 397 

To all communities who are tending towards further 
consolidations and to every man who can truthfully 
exclaim, 

" My benison with those 
Who would make good of ill and friends of foes," 

we commend a close study of that great work of triumph- 
ant Democracy, which Mr. Gladstone has pronounced 
" the most wonderful work ever struck off at one time 
by the brain and purpose of man " — the profoundly 
conservative and yet radically republican American 
Constitution. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

FOREIGN AFFAIRS. 

" Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling 
alliances with none." — Jefferson. 

As we have endeavored to point out, there is a 
great difference between the old and new lands in the 
management of their domestic concerns. This differ- 
ence becomes radical in the domain of foreign affairs. 
Indeed, it is no longer a difference : it is a complete 
reversal. What the old land does the new land avoids; 
what the one land does not, the other does in dealing 
with other nations. The consequences of the two diverse 
policies are seen in diametrically different results. The 
huge debt, the constant war, or fear of war, and the 
international jealousies which surround the parent land 
contrast strangely with the freedom of the Republic 
from all these ills. The excuse made by British states- 
men for the unfortunate contrast presented is that the 
Republic has no strong neighbors, and no colonies or 
dependencies far distant from its shores which it is 
bound to guard. I am persuaded that the cause of 
difference lies deeper than this. No nation is so 
tempitingly placed as the Republic for becoming en- 



Foreign Affairs. 399 

gaged in aggressive warfare. The materials lie around 
her upon every side. Had America been cursed by mon- 
archical institutions, which ever breed strong military 
classes, to whom, as to the royal family and the court, 
peaceful avocations are discreditable as compared with 
military operations, there can be little question but 
that the American monarchy would have involved it- 
self in endless disputes, treaties, and entangling alliances 
with other powers, necessitating large standing armies 
and fleets, from which would have come endless v/ars, 
or fear of war. The Republic began early to pursue 
the paths of peace. The messages of each succeeding 
President enforced the words of Jefferson, which we 
have placed at the head of this chapter, and the sayings 
of American statesmen abound with kindred senti- 
ments. Washington, in his farewell address, gave the 
key-note upon which all subsequent changes have been 
rung. He says: 

" The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations 
is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as 
little political connection as possible. * * * So far as we have 
already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect 
good faith. Here let us stop." 

Madison's view of the Republic's mission was: 

" To cherish peace and friendly intercourse with all nations 
having correspondent dispositions ; to maintain sincere neutrality 
tovv^ards belligerent nations ; to prefer, in all cases, amicable dis- 
cussion and reasonable accommodation of differences to a decision 



400 Triumphant Democracy. 

of them by an appeal to arms ; to exclude foreign intrigues and 
foreign partialities, so degrading to all countries, and so baneful to 
free ones." 

Adams speaks of 

" The pestilence of foreign influence, which is the angel of de- 
struction to elective governments." 

Jefferson further lays down as " our first and funda- 
mental maxim," " never to entangle ourselves in the 
broils of Europe. Our second, never to suffer Europe 
to intermeddle with cis-atlantic affairs." And so was 
reached the great doctrine, bearing the name of Monroe, 
declaring to the powers of Europe that '' we should 
consider any attempt on their part to extend their 
system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous 
to our peace and safety." "Our policy in regard to 
Europe," the Monroe message continued, "■ is not to 
interfere in the internal concerns of any of its powers ; 
to consider the government de facto as the legitimate 
government for us; to cultivate friendly relations with 
it, and to preserve these relations by a frank, firm, and 
manly policy ; meeting, in all instances, the just claims 
of every power, submitting to injuries from none." 

This chapter could be filled with extracts from the 
Presidents' messages and from other sources, all preach- 
ing the same important lesson, that the Republic must 
be at peace with its neighbors and with the world. I 
need not, however, dwell upon the past. It is with the 
present we have to deal. 



Foreign Affairs, 401 

Let me give then a short statement of the course re- 
cently pursued by the Monarchy and by the Republic in 
the management of similar emergencies in their relations 
to other States. The one has a canal through Egypt 
to guard, and the other a railway across the Isthmus 
of Panama, that the traffic of the world may be unim- 
peded. A few months ago word w^as received in Wash- 
ington that a disturbance had broken out at one end of 
the railway in the Republic of Colombia, and that there 
was grave danger that railway communication across the 
Isthmus would be interfered with. A force was at once 
despatched to the scene, and the admiral sailed under 
the following instructions, which were published in the 
newspapers that the nation and the world might see and 
understand all. 

[Telegram.] 

" Navy Department, Washington, April 3, 1885. 
" Rear-Admiral James E. Jouett, U. S. S. " Tennessee/' Pen- 
SACOLA, Fla. : 

" In addition to the force under your command in the Steamships 
'Tennessee,' ' Swatara,' 'Alliance' and 'Galena,' all of which 
should be at Aspinwall upon your arrival, you will be re-enforced 
by about two hundred marines, dispatched to-day from New York 
by the steamship ' City of Para ' with tents and camp equipage. 
To provide for contingencies further supplies will be sent at once. 

" The duty you are called upon to perform calls for the exercise 

of great discretion. The object of the expedition is the performance 

by the United States of their engagements to preserve the neutral- 
26 



402 Trhimpha7it Democracy. 

ity of and keep open the transit from Colon to Panama, and fur- 
ther to protect the hves and property of American citizens. 

"The circumstances as understood, from which the necessity of 
the expedition has arisen, are in general, that a steamship belong- 
ing to Americans has been seized at Colon by an armed force and 
goods in transit taken from her, her officers and the American Con- 
sul imprisoned, and the transit across the Isthmus interrupted. 
With the consequences involved in these past acts you are not con- 
cerned. Your sole duty is confined to seeing that a free and unin- 
terrupted transit across the Isthmus is restored and maintained 
and that the lives and property of American citizens are pro- 
tected. 

"If on your arrival at the Isthmus order shall have been restored 
and the Colombian authorities are adequate to the protection of 
life and property and the maintenance of the free transit, you will 
interfere in no respect with the constituted authorities, but report 
and await orders. You have no part to perform in the political or 
social disorders of Colombia, and it will be your duty to see that 
no irritation or unfriendliness shall arise from your presence at the 
Isthmus. 

" The exercise of humanity towards Am^ican citizens in exigent 
distress must be left to your sound discretion. 

" W. C. Whitney, 

" Secretary of the Navy^ 

Note how careful that promising young statesman, 
Mr. Whitney, is to limit the operations of his admiral 
to the maintenance of the free and uninterrupted com- 
munication which his government had guaranteed ! 
How solicitous that the authorities and people of Co- 
lombia should be so treated that no unfriendliness or 
irritation could possibly arise! The admiral found, 



Foreign Affairs, 403 

upon arrival, that the disturbance was over, and soon re- 
turned. Not a shot vv^as fired. Now the great point 
here is that not a voice was raised in all America sug- 
gesting that any part of Colombia should be held, or 
annexed, or that the people of that State should be in 
any way interfered with. Consequently no suspicions 
v/ere aroused, no enemies created. American interests 
were not pleaded as a warrant for continued occupation. 
The great and powerful Republic was at Colon as the 
friend of its small and v/eak sister, but upon no ac- 
count to interfere with her even for Colombia's own 
seeming good. Colombia might manage or, seemingly 
to America, mismanage her own affairs as to her seemed 
possible, or best. The admiral would no more have 
thought of interfering than he would had he been on 
the shores of Ireland and doomed to stand and see a 
poor tenant farmer evicted, or upon the shores of Scot- 
land and had seen a poor crofter abused. If the quar- 
rellers in Colombia had attempted to interrupt railway 
communication across the Isthmus he would have pro- 
tected that, and in so doing would have received the 
thanks of all the good people of Colombia. 

President Cleveland refers to this episode in his re- 
cent message to Congress. For the benefit of the un- 
fortunate people of the Monarchy, and more especially 
for that of its statesmen, I quote the passage in full : 

" Emerg-encies growing out of civil v/ar in the United States of 
Colombia demanded of the govermnent at the beginning of this 



404 Triumphant Democracy. 

administration the employment of armed force to fulfil its guaran- 
tees under the thirty-fifth article of the treaty of 1 816 in order to 
keep the transit open across the Isthmus of Panama. Desirous of 
exercising only the powers expressly reserved to us by the treaty, 
and mindful of the rights of Colombia, the forces sent to the Isthmus 
were instructed to confine their action to * positively and effi- 
caciously ' preventing- the transit and its accessories from being 'in- 
terrupted or embarrassed.' The execution of this delicate and 
responsible task necessarily involved police control where the local 
authority was temporarily powerless, but always in aid of the sov- 
ereignty of Colombia. The prompt and successful fulfilment of its 
duty by this government was highly appreciated by the government 
of Colombia, and has been followed by expressions of its satisfaction. 
High praise is due to the officers and men engaged in this service. 
The restoration of peace on the Isthmus by the re-establishment of 
the constituted government there being thus accomplished, the forces 
of the United States were withdrawn.'' 

Leaving for the present the Colombian difficulty as 
peacefully settled without one trace of dissatisfaction 
upon the part of the weaker power to plague the Re- 
public hereafter, let us see how the Monarchy man- 
aged a similar task imposed upon her. 

England was apprised that a rebellion against the in- 
famous ruler of Egypt had broken out and, being bound 
with France to exercise dual control, she besought that 
country to interfere jointly with her in suppressing this 
righteous uprising of an oppressed people. The gov- 
ernment of France was anxious to do so, but the people 
of France unmistakably pronounced against this — a 
proof that Democracy is beginning at last to show its 



Foreig7i Affairs, 405 

legitimate fruit there. Instead of sending an expedition 
to guard the canal, which, by the way, never was en- 
dangered, the government sent a large force to Egypt 
and began an aggressive campaign to prevent the people 
of Egypt from having such rulers as they desired. From 
that unfortunate day to this Britain has gone deeper 
and deeper into trouble. Already $100,000,000 (ii^20,- 
000,000) and thousands of lives have been sacrificed ; and 
for what ? Absolutely nothing. The criminal side of 
the question has so shocked the moral sense of the best 
portion of the Liberal Party that Mr. Gladstone has 
deemed it necessary upon the eve of an appeal to the 
nation, to confess that the Soudan campaign was a 
mistake. It was worse than that, Mr. Gladstone ; it 
was a crime, which would sully your fame forever were 
it not known that you had no part in it, but were over- 
ruled by the aristocratic element which you thought 
essential to keep in your Cabinet. 

It may be argued that Britain was bound to interfere 
and support upon the throne a sovereign against the 
wishes of the Egyptian people, though this seems a 
strange position for so advanced a nation to occupy ; 
or it may be said that Britain had neither right nor 
wish to interfere with the internal affairs of Egypt, but 
only wished to guard the canal. It matters not which 
position is assumed, the fact remains that the policy 
pursued has not produced the desired result upon 
either hypothesis, and the end arrived at is in lament- 



4o6 Triumphant Democracy, 

able contrast with the different policy pursued by the 
Republic. The strong Republic sees clearly from the 
start what end it has in view, and aims solely for that 
end. The weak Monarchy, ever subject to the popular 
breeze, the creature of circumstance, can have no de- 
cided policy. The British Constitution makes Britain 
the Micawber of nations, always looking for '' some- 
thing to turn up." The Republic has complied with 
its treaty obligations and retired from the scene, with 
the thanks of its weak neighbor. We are yet to learn 
what is to be the end of the management of the Mon- 
archy. So far no contrast could be more striking 
than that between it and that of the Republic. 

Let us pause here a moment to contrast the posi- 
tions of the two admirals upon their respective stations 
at Colon and Alexandria. The republican official had 
every interest in maintaining peace. The responsibility 
of firing a shot was appalling. Behind him stood his 
superior, the Secretary of the Navy, every line of whose 
cautious but explicit instructions seems to regard hos- 
tilities with aversion. Behind the government, the 
admiral knew, stood the American people, loath to 
hurt the feelings of a weak neighbor and determined 
never to interfere with its internal affairs. No possible 
reward, no glory, would fall to this admiral from en- 
tangling his country in war. He would have been held 
to the strictest accountability for every drop of blood 
shed, and the verdict of public opinion at first would 



Foreign Affairs. 407 

have been disposed to go decidedly against him. On 
the other hand, the surest mode of earning the thanks 
of Congress and of his country was so to conduct him- 
self so as to secure peace without firing a shot. So 
stood Admiral Jouett, the man of war converted into 
the messenger of peace. This is the attitude of the 
Democracy. 

How was it with Admiral Seymour, the servant of a 
monarch ? Let him refrain from bombarding from be- 
hind his iron walls the few miserable defences in Alex- 
andria Bay, and never in his history perhaps would such 
an opportunity occur again to rescue his name from 
obscurity. If he decided to be patient and remain at 
peace, half-pay and oblivion would be his reward. 
He knew that if he began to bombard the Egyptian 
defences the ruling class, which alone could reward 
him, would applaud. Even the Queen, a woman, who 
should shudder at war and not publicly parade her 
interest in slaughter, would publicly congratulate him, 
and the Prince of Wales and all the aristocracy which 
move round the court, together with the military 
and naval classes who flourish only through war, would 
extol him to the skies. The government tempted the 
man to fire. All the forces behind him urged him on ; 
while, as we have seen, all the forces behind the repub- 
lican admiral held him to peace. 

Admiral Seymour might have thus reasoned : " Ne- 
gotiate this trouble peacefully, I remain poor and ob- 



4o8 Triumphant Democracy, 

scure. There is no danger ; I am perfectly safe behind 
these iron walls ; just open my guns and fame and honor 
and rank and wealth are mine." He yielded. Mr. 
Gladstone himself stood up in Parliament and advo- 
cated a peerage and a pension to the admiral who was 
bribed to begin the bombardment of Alexandria. For- 
tunately, not even Mr. Gladstone could force the Lib- 
eral party to grant the pension. Admiral Seymour re- 
ceived in cash his thirty pieces of silver. 

Fellow-countrymen, what would you think of a 
judge upon the bench deciding his own cause, where a 
verdict for the defendant meant to the judge obscurity 
and half-pay, and a verdict for the plaintiff meant a 
peerage and twenty-five thousand pounds? Yet this 
was precisely the position of Admiral Seymour at Alex- 
andria, and it is practically the position occupied by 
every British commander to whom is committed the 
issue of peace or war in the " exercise of his discretion." 
Need we marvel that while the Monarchy becomes in- 
volved in war after war, the Republic settles similar 
problems in peace and with the good will and cordial 
friendship of the power with which she has to deal ! 

Let us proceed just a step further and show the 
policy of the Democracy upon this subject of inter- 
vention or complications in the affairs of other States. 
The President's message from which I have just 
quoted refers to a treaty offered by Nicaragua, which 
proposed to give America the necessary land upon 



Foreign Affairs, 409 

which to construct a canal of its own across the Isthmus 
— a tempting bait this to a Monarchy with imperial am- 
bitions. But listen to the response of the republican 
President : 

"Maintaining, as I do, tlie tenets of a line of precedents from 
Washington's day, which proscribe entangling aUiances with 
foreign States, I do not favor a policy of acquisition of new and dis- 
tant territory or the incorporation of remote interests with our own, 

" The laws of progress are vital and organic, and we must be 
conscious of that irresistible tide of commercial expansion which, 
as the concomitant of our active civilization, day by day, is being 
urged onward by those increasing facilities of production, trans- 
portation, and communication to which steam and electricity have 
given birth ; but our duty in the present instructs us to address 
ourselves mainly to the development of the vast resources of the 
great area committed to our charge, and to the cultivation of the 
arts of peace within our own borders, though jealously alert in pre- 
venting the American hemisphere from being involved in the po- 
litical problems and complications of distant governments. There- 
fore, I am unable to recommend propositions involving paramount 
privileges of ownership or right outside of our own territory, when 
coupled with absolute and unlimited engagements to defend the 
territorial integrity of the State where such interests lie. While 
the general project of connecting the two oceans by means of a 
canal is to be encouraged, I am of opinion that any scheme to that 
end to be considered with favor should be free from the features 
alluded to.'' 

Statesmanship in Britain would have required some 
life-long diplomat to negotiate for the privileges offered 
and the seed of many serious questions of the future 



4IO Triumphant Democracy. 

would have been laid, the abused people of Britain being 
led to applaud the strong statesman who had promoted 
British interests and enlarged the bounds of the em- 
pire. A little common sense in the Democracy ensures 
the Republic a continuance of peace. But now and 
then the seeds of future trouble present themselves in 
more specious garbs. The Congo Basin attracts at- 
tention at present, and here is a paragraph bearing 
upon that subject, also m the same President's message 
which I have quoted. 

" A conference of delegates of the principal commercial nations 
was held at Berlin last winter to discuss methods whereby the 
Congo Basin might be kept open to the world's trade. Delegates 
attended on behalf of the United States on the understanding that 
their part should be merely deliberative, without imparting to the 
results any binding character, so far as the United States were 
concerned. This reserve was due to the indisposition of this 
government to share in any disposal by an international congress 
of jurisdictional questions in remote foreign territories. There- 
suits of the conference were embodied in a formal act of the nature 
of an international convention, which laid down certain obligations 
purporting to be binding on the signatories subject to ratification 
within one year. Notwithstanding the reservation under which 
the delegates of the United States attended, their signatures were 
attached to the general act in the same manner as those of the 
plenipotentiaries of other governments, thus making the United 
States appear, without reserve or qualification, as signatories to a 
joint international engagement imposing on the signers the conser- 
vation of the territorial integrity of distant regions where we have 
no established interests or control. 



Foreign Affairs, 411 

■ *' This government does not, however, regard its reservation o\ 
liberty of action in the premises as at all impaired ; and holding 
that an engagement to share in the obligation of enforcing neutral- 
ity in the remote valley of the Congo would be an alliance whose 
responsibilities we are not in a position to assume, I abstain from 
asking the sanction of the Senate to that general act." 

The President does not even consider it worth 
while to submit the question to the Senate. It is so 
manifestly opposed to the traditions of the Democracy, 
whose business is to mind its own business and teach 
by example, not by interference. The sanction of the 
Senate not having been obtained, of course the action 
of the mistaken delegates is of no effect, and the Re- 
public lets the imperial nations involve themselves in 
dangerous alliances upon the Congo. We are soon to 
hear, no doubt, of disputes between these nations upon 
this very subject. When these arise, the republican 
method can be once more referred to with satisfaction. 

I have mentioned three questions, all occurring in 
one year, through any one of which future wars might 
have arisen, had the Republic not known better than the 
Monarchy how to manage its foreign affairs. No, my 
readers, it is not because America is so happily placed 
as to be excluded from the necessity of interference, 
or that she is not bound by guarantees and alliances 
with other powers, or freed from the necessity to en- 
gage in wars as other nations do, but, as the instances 
just cited abundantly show, her envied position is 



412 Triumphant Democracy. 

the natural result of resolute refusal to adopt the 
measures which must and always do lead inevitably to 
wars. The Democracy does not escape these terrible 
catastrophes by luck, but by careful adherence from 
year to year, and in every emergency, to a sound policy. 
The American people are satisfied that the worst na- 
tive government in the world is better for its people 
than the best government which any foreign power 
can supply ; that governmental interference upon the 
part of a so-called civilized power, in the affairs of 
the most barbarous tribe upon earth, is injurious to 
that tribe, and never under any circumstances whatever 
can it prove beneficial, either for the undeveloped race 
or for the intruder. They are further satisfied that, in 
the end, more speed is made in developing and improv- 
ing backward races by proving to them through ex- 
ample the advantages of Democratic institutions than 
is possible through violent interference. The man in 
America who should preach that the nation should 
interfere with distant races for their civilization, and 
for their good, would be voted either a fool or a hypo- 
crite ; such a classification need not be confined to this 
side of the Atlantic. There was nothing unkind in Mr. 
Leonard Courtney's policy of allowing the Egyptians 
" to stew in their own juice." This policy would have 
been permanently best for them. Mr. Courtney was the 
true statesman. 

We ask careful readers to reflect upon what has been 



Foreign Affairs, 413 

here shown, and consider whether the success achieved 
in the management of domestic questions is not admir- 
ably supplemented by the wonderful results attending 
the foreign relations of the Democracy. To the people 
of my native land I say, do not believe your statesmen 
when they attempt to excuse their failures and their 
follies by stating that the Republic escapes similar re- 
sults because isolated from other nations while Britain 
is not. This is not true. The '^ silver streak " should 
act as an isolater more complete than any the Republic 
has ; for the Republic has no such barrier either north 
or south. It is not further isolation which is re- 
quired, but a government isolated from monarchical 
and aristocratical influences. When this is obtained 
there no difficulty will be found in the way of adopting 
the policy of the Triumphant Democracy, which avoids 
all entangling alliances, since the ally of one nation 
necessarily proclaims himself the enemy of others. 
Britain will then stand as the Republic stands, " The 
friend of all nations — the ally of none." The lesson 
which the Democracy teaches the Monarchy is that 
proper attention to its own affairs and freedom allowed 
to other nations to manage theirs in their own way, 
is the best and surest means to secure progress in 
political development throughout the world. Thus 
saith the Democracy. No nation can give to another 
any good which will compensate for the injury caused 
by interference with the sacred germ of self-government. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE government's NON-POLITICAL WORK. 

" Politically and socially the United States are a community living in a 
natural condition and conscious of doing so. And being in this healthy 
case and having this healthy consciousness, the community there uses its 
understanding with the soundness of health ; it in general sees its politi- 
cal and social concerns straight, and sees them clear." 

— Matthew Arnold. 

The man of ability in Britain is too often tempted 
into the political field. The rare talent for organization 
and administration of the American, on the other hand, 
usually finds a far more useful field in the management 
of affairs, much more important than politics, in a land 
which has finally settled all fundamental political prob- 
lems and now rests at peace upon the rock of the 
political equality of the citizen, while the parent land 
is tossing about upon unruly seas, knowing no rest. I 
have often admired the various non-political bureaus at 
Washington as being strictly American — something 
which the Democracy has evolved far superior to any 
similar bureaus ever produced by monarchical forms of 
government. This is probably the ablest and purest 
service in the world. I had intended to visit Wash- 
ington to examine the various branches of this work 
and write an account of them, but the time could 
never be spared. The happy idea occurred to me to 



The Government^ s Non-political Work. 415 

send my secretary, Mr. Bridge, to perform the task, 
with a request to write up the subject and see what he 
could make of it. He has done so well that I cannot 
do better than incorporate his account, which is as 
follows : 

One of Matthew Arnold's clear-thinking Yankees has 
said, with epigrammatic brevity, that whenever three 
Americans get together they organize : one becomes sec- 
retary, a second treasurer, and the other a standing com- 
mittee of one to watch the executive. And, surely, this is 
more than a saying. A people trained to govern itself, 
even in the most minute affairs of local life, must of 
necessity develop a great capacity for organization and 
administration. Thus we find in America that groups 
of men with allied interests invariably have an organi- 
zation to watch over the common weal. But for or- 
ganization of the completest and most comprehensive 
character it is needful to see what the Federal Govern- 
ment is doing at Washington. A visit to the numerous 
departments and bureaus there is like a journey with 
" Alice in Wonderland." There in offices, some ding}^, 
some magnificent, one may see, lying on tables or on 
shelves, the charts which indicate in every particular 
the nation's life and health, its pulse-beats and respira- 
tion, its changing appetite and desires. Nay, the whole 
world, the universe itself is told to '' put out its wrist/' 
that the experts may know how it is doing. The present 
condition of crops in California or in Egypt ; the degree 



41 6 Triumpha7tt Democracy. 

of cloudiness in Dakota or Maine ; the number and con- 
dition of hogs in market at Kansas City, or in transport 
to Chicago; the appearance of grasshoppers in Georgia; 
the wheat in store at Duluth or New York ; the number 
of bales of cotton at Bombay or Mobile; the present 
position in mid-Atlantic of a water-logged wreck, or 
a buoy adrift ; a drought in Arkansas ; the southward 
flight of cranes in Dakota ; the change made yesterday 
in the revolving light in the bay of Nagasaki, Japan ; 
the coal at present available for ships at St. Helena ; 
the relative cloudiness of the planet Mars — these and 
a thousand and one other matters, as diverse as can be 
imagined, are noted, docketed and labelled, every change 
being recorded almost as soon as it takes place. 

Let me give an example. The Agricultural Depart- 
ment has in its service about ten thousand persons, dis- 
persed all over the continent and a few throughout 
the world. Their service is mainly voluntary. From 
their reports is compiled a monthly record, which is 
exhibited in chambers of commerce and published 
in newspapers, giving the area and condition of crops 
throughout the world ; cost of transportation to home 
and foreign markets; prices prevailing on farms and 
in principal cities ; stocks on hand ; requirements of 
consumption ; sources of supply, etc. Thus the 
American farmer or merchant can always ascertain 
the amount of acreage in particular crops ; the con- 
dition of the crops as regards growth, maturity, and 



The Government's Non-political Work. 417 

probable yield ; the number and local value of horses, 
cows, sheep, oxen or other cattle ; the prices of labor 
in different localities ; or any other data bearing on 
his work. Further, seeds are distributed and planted 
all over the vast continent, and the results of differ- 
ing soils and conditions carefully noted, and deduc- 
tions drawn as to the appropriate environment. Then 
the habits and life-history of insects and birds injurious 
to vegetation and the best means of destroying them 
are subjects occupying the attention of a separate divi- 
sion of the Department. In this work, specialists are at 
work in the field and laboratory ; and the results of 
their labors, printed in special reports, are dispersed by 
the numerous local agricultural societies and institutions 
with which the Department is in intimate communion. 
In its own garden the Department cultivates new va- 
rieties of fruits and plants, for dissemination through- 
out the country. In this garden, Chinese sorghum or 
sugar-cane was first grown in America, and the Chinese 
yam was introduced by the same means. The tea plant 
is another example, and the domestic product is largely 
consumed by the families who raise it. A Western 
orange planter writes to the Department : 

" The Bahia orange sent to California ten years ago is conceded 

to be the best variety produced in this State. It is the largest size 

and finest flavor, and sells higher than any other kind. It is worth 

to California all that the Department of Agriculture has ever cost 

the country." 
27 



41 8 Trmmphant Democracy, 

Amongst other work of the Department may be 
named the analyses of grains and fruits to determine 
their nutritive value, and analyses of soils and fertilizers; 
the microscopical study of plant diseases, especially 
fungi ; the diffusion of knowledge concerning the uses 
of forest-trees in relation to agriculture ; the investiga- 
tion of specific diseases amongst cattle, and efforts to pre- 
vent or cure. In brief, everything that relates directly 
or even remotely to farming comes within the scope 
of the Agricultural Department. So complete is its 
supervision, that one examining its work is impelled to 
the belief that the American farmer has only to follow his 
instructions, and the government department will run 
his farm and see that it pays. 

The United States Signal Service is another great 
organization, which, by its electric veins spread over a 
continent, receives crude material, assimilates it, and 
sends it back pulsating in a rich, life-giving stream. 
From Cape Breton Island to southern Oregon, and 
from San Diego, California, to Havana, an area three 
thousand miles long by two thousand miles wide, em- 
bracing one hundred and fifty intermediate stations, 
messages are simultaneously flashed over the wires to 
Washington twice a day, reporting all atmospheric 
phenomena. An hour afterward the little room of the 
assistant signal officer in G Street, Washington, holds 
in its dingy precincts a chart which indicates barometric 
pressure, direction and velocity of wind, temperature, 



The Governmenf s Non-political Work, 419 

dew-point, rainfall, and cloud areas of every part of the 
six million square miles covered by its net-work of 
telegraphs. A stranger dropping in at midnight of 
January 9, 1886, would have been told that local snows 
were falling in the lake regions ; that the tempera- 
ture had risen in the Gulf States ; and that the rivers 
had risen a foot at Cincinnati, Cairo, and Memphis, and 
fallen five feet at Chattanooga ; that cautionary off- 
shore signals were exhibited from Wilmington to New 
York, and cautionary signals from New Haven to East- 
port. He would probably have been shown the track 
of the storm which brought to Washington the lowest 
barometric reading ever seen there ; and the chart being 
prepared under his eyes would show him the same 
storm disappearing into Labrador. A few hours later 
the finished chart, reproduced by telegraph, would be 
in the office of every important newspaper, every post- 
office, thousands of railway stations and chambers of 
commerce throughout the land from San Francisco to 
Boston, and from Minneapolis to Key West in the Gulf 
Stream. The people of New England would know on 
receiving the morning paper that for the next thirty- 
two hours they v/ere to have cold, fair weather, with a 
rising barometer ; while those of Los Angeles, in lower 
California, and Jacksonville, Florida, would be glad- 
dened to know that the cold wave was passing away. 
In Minnesota railway officials would learn by the same 
report published in their newspapers, or hanging in the 



420 Triumphant Democracy, 

ticket-office, that there would be no immediate need of 
snow-ploughs, although traffic would be slightly impeded 
by local snows. The skipper who contemplated leav- 
ing New York and sailing coastwise would hesitate on 
reading, at the breakfast table, that cautionary signals 
were displayed ; and influenced by the report of some 
army surgeon or amateur meteorologist away in Dakota, 
he might possibly decide to spend another day at 
home. All sorts and conditions of men are affected 
by this chart. One postpones a journey ; another, cal- 
culating on the arrival of grain in Eastern cities, sells 
before the market falls ; emigrants decide to go West 
by the Southern Pacific route ; physicians relax their 
restraints as the improving weather admits the invalid 
to the fresh air. 

An amusing illustration of the extent to which 
the warnings of the Weather Bureau are read and 
heeded was lately afforded by a mistake made by a 
Western observer in his report of local temperature. 
He reported about forty degrees instead of four. The 
result was that the officer who makes the predictions 
concluded from his data that a warm wave was on its 
way east. Thirty million of people living east of the 
Mississippi forthwith left overcoats at home, and put 
on goloshes in preparation for a thaw, which never 
came. The unlucky weather prophet at first excused 
the tardy arrival of the warm wave by saying that 
Western railways were blocked with snow, and arrivals 



The Government's Non-political Work. 421 

of all kinds were delayed. But as the days passed 
and no warm wave appeared, the newspapers launched 
forth an avalanche of ridicule — the American's mode of 
complaint — at the untruthful prophet ; and presently 
everybody in America was talking about the young 
lieutenant in Washington, v/ho, oblivious to complain- 
ings and ridicule, went on drawing his isobars and 
isotherms, and making his calculations and predictions. 
It implies great faith in this weather prophet, when 
people complain that he ought to have corrected the 
error made by the local observer in Colorado or Nevada. 
It has come to this : that the weather prophet must 
not only predict correctly from his data, but even cor- 
rect the data if these are wrong. Considering the haste 
with which the weather charts and predictions are pre- 
pared, it is surprising how few errors are made. Eighty- 
three per cent, of all the indications made last year for 
the Atlantic coast were justified ; while on the Pacific 
the verifications averaged eighty-seven per cent. Of 
two thousand eight hundred and sixty-four cautionary 
signals displayed at ports, two thousand three hundred 
and one, or eighty per cent., were justified. Cold-wave 
signals were justified in about the same proportion, 
eight hundred and fifteen out of nine hundred and 
forty-six having been verified. 

The Signal Service engages in much special work. 
It furnishes the Farmer s Bulletin with meteorological 
information that is of special interest to the agricultu- 



42 2 Triumpha7it Democracy. 

rist. This is an official publication, and the govern- 
ment has taken every available means to put it into the 
hands of the class for which it is intended. The rise and 
fall of rivers are watched, and timely warning given by 
telegraph of coming floods. The people of the Western 
plains receive similar warning of the approach of local 
storms, and the agriculturists, ranchmen, and others 
generally have twelve hours to prepare for the coming 
" Norther." The bureau has also undertaken the task 
of announcing the coming of locusts, grasshoppers, and 
other insect scourges. Frost-warnings for the benefit 
of the sugar industries of Louisiana and the orange 
growers of Florida have of late years made the Service 
popular in the South. The bureau has a very complete 
local service in the cotton belt which supplies infor- 
mation daily as to temperature and rainfall in every 
part of the district. Then once a month the Service 
publishes a review of meteorological observations made 
in every part of the world, including Siberia, Greenland, 
Iceland, Borneo, Turkestan, Japan, China, and some 
places whose names are suggestive only of desolation 
and savagery. 

An important extension of the Signal Service has 
been made to the sea-coast. Stations are placed at in- 
tervals along the coast, and connected by wire with 
each other, and with Washington. Here storm-flags 
and danger warnings are made visible to vessels moving 
off the coast. A ship sailing from the equator to New 



The Governmenf s Non-political Work. 423 

York as she passes Cape Henlopen may inquire by sig- 
nals whether any hurricane is impending ; and if so, 
whether she has time to reach Sandy Hook, or must 
take shelter behind the Delaware breakwater. Or a 
vessel bound south from New York may inquire at the 
capes of the Delaware whether any storm is likely to 
strike her before she can make Cape Hatteras, and re- 
ceive full answer by telegraph from the chief signal offi- 
cer at Washington without interrupting his voyage. 
General Hazen, the chief signal officer, very properly 
thinks this division of his work of superlative impor- 
tance. He says : " The time is not far distant when the 
possession of a coast not covered by sea-coast storm- 
signal and Signal Service stations, watching as sentinels 
each its own beat of sea and shore, and ready to sum- 
mon aid by electric wires, will be held as much an evi- 
dence of semi-barbarism as is now among civilized 
nations the holding of any national coast without a sys- 
tem of light-house lights." 

The achievements of the Signal Service are surpris- 
ing even to those who know of its numerous observing 
stations spread over a land area nearly twice as great as 
that of Europe. But what shall we think of similar 
achievements on the ocean ? If we are amazed at the 
extent of meteorological observations conducted on 
land, what will be our feelings on learning that similar 
work is being done on the sea, and predictions given 
for use of mariners ? I have before me a remark- 



424 Triumphant Democracy, 

able chart prepared by Commander Bartlett, of the 
Navy. 

And here mark the difference between a government 
by'the people and a government by a class : naval offi- 
cers in America do not receive their highest rewards 
for bombarding a defenceless Alexandria, or sacking a 
Tamatave. Their honors flow from life-saving services; 
and shall it not be said that the Schleys and Bartletts 
of America are greater than the Seymours and De- 
Courcys of semi-civilized Europe whose *' glory is to 
slay ? " The European method is to '' make a soli- 
tude, and call it — peace ! " The American reverses 
the process, and by the gentle arts of peace makes a 
teeming city of the solitude and a garden of the 
wilderness. 

To return to the chart, however. Here, at a glance, 
we have the safe transatlantic route, carefully drawn to 
avoid the ice, which in January hardly came further 
south than latitude 53°. The sailing route to the 
equator, calculated to give ships the benefit of the 
trade-winds, is also as clear as careful drawing and good 
printing can make it. The prevailing winds for the 
month are indicated, as well as the direction of ocean 
currents ; while special symbols mark the position of 
wrecks, buoys adrift, water-spouts, and localities haunted 
by whales. Directions for the use of oil in heavy seas 
are printed in the corner of the chart. Derelicts drift- 
incf about in the tracks of vessels are observed, and their 



The Government' s Non-political Work, 425 

changing position marked from month to month. Here, 
for example, is a water-logged schooner, the '' Twenty- 
one Friends," which, despite its name, has been more 
threatening than twenty-one enemies. The vessel was 
abandoned off the coast of Virginia on March 24. 
Being lumber laden she continued to float ; and by 
April 28 had drifted twelve hundred miles. During 
the summer months she pursued her solitary course 
across the Atlantic, ever followed by watchful eyes in 
Washington. On September 20 she was apparently 
making for Queenstown, but suddenly headed off for 
Cape Finisterre, where she was seen early in December. 
She has probably ere this been towed into a Spanish 
port. Several other floating wrecks have been watched 
by anxious eyes in the hydrographic office, which, una- 
ble to send out and destroy such dangers in the track 
of commerce, could only give warning by indicating, as 
nearly as possible, their position. This wonderful chart 
is soon to give the positions of fogs in the north Atlan- 
tic. Thus the ferry between the old and new lands is 
ever being made safer. The weather predictions are, of 
course, only proximate, being largely based on the peri- 
odicity of meteorological changes in the north Atlantic. 
Here are examples of the weather indications given, 
copied from the chart for January, 1886: 

" The storm area on the north Atlantic is at its maximum. 
Between the coast of the United States north of Cape Hatteras, and 
that of Europe, north of 47°, a gale of wind may be expected once 



426 Triu7nphant Democracy, 

in six days. These gales are most violent when the wind is be- 
tween S. W. and N. W., but a large percentage do not develop a 
force of more than 10. 

" Heavy northers may be expected along the Gulf coast of Mex- 
ico and Texas as often as once in ten days ; some may extend as 
far east as Key West, and south over the Caribbean Sea to Aspin- 
wall. 

" There is little danger of ice in the routes of transatlantic 
steamers.'' 

And then come recommendations in regard to pas- 
sage off Cape Horn, which admirably show the deduc- 
tive methods of modern weather prophets : 

" In the summer season — that is, during the long days — there 
exists a barometric minimum over the vast plains of Patagonia ; in 
consequence of the constant indrift due to this atmospheric condi- 
tion the centres of depressions which travel from the Pacific to the 
Atlantic are deflected toward the north, causing violent storms in 
the region of Cape Horn and Tierra del Fuego. It is, therefore, 
desirable, after passing Staten Land, to stand to the southward as 
rapidly as possible to the 59th or 60th parallel, if the ice permits, 
where the influence of the navigable semicircle of the atmospheric 
whirl will be felt, in which relatively light north-east and south-east 
winds prevail and are favorable for making the passage into the 
Pacific." 

" Here's fine revolution an' we had the trick to 
see \r The Fuegians, who Hve in this inhospitable 
region, believe, as Fitzroy tells us, that storms are 
sent by evil spirits to punish the wicked ; and here 
Captain Bartlett with unconscious iconoclasm says their 



The Government's Non-political Work, 427 

cause is only a '' barometric minimum " in Patagonia ! 
These scientific experts are rapidly taking all romance 
out of life with their classifications, and technical 
phraseology. If the Fuegians get a sight of Captain 
Bartlett's chart they will at once become a religionless 
race, for it is obviously vain to attempt to propitiate a 
barometric minimum. 

The monthly publication of this encyclopaedic chart 
is but a small part of the work of the Hydrographic 
Ofifice. Branch offices are maintained at the principal 
ports to give information to mariners concerning 
routes, to adjust barometers and chronometers, to ex- 
amine old charts, and point out their errors. Nearly 
eleven thousand persons received nautical information 
last year from the of^cers under the hydrographer ; 
and nearly twelve thousand vessels v/ere boarded and 
information collected from their log-books. Then 
every week notices to mariners are published and cir- 
culated all over the world, announcing changes in 
lights, buoys, and everything affecting navigation, 
whether at Kodono-Sima, in the Japanese inland sea, 
or in the Swash Channel at New York. The enor- 
mous work entailed by this may be guaged from the 
fact that there are about twenty thousand buoys in the 
world, and every change in color or position is immedi- 
ately reported to the hydrographer, who at once an- 
nounces the change to every American consul and to 
hundreds of mariners throughout the world. So, too, 



428 Triu7nphant Democracy, 

with the light-houses of the world, which are so numer- 
ous that a list of them fills six volumes of nearly three 
hundred pages each. This list, by the way, was com- 
piled in the Hydrographic Office ; and twenty days 
after receipt of the " copy," a three-hundred edition 
of this six-volume v/ork returned from the govern- 
ment printers, ready for distribution in the navy. In 
this office the navy store of charts is kept ; and every 
change referred to above is made on these charts by 
hand. The office likewise prints a great many charts 
itself; and of these the plates are regularly corrected to 
date. Altogether this Hydrographic Office is one of 
the wonders of Washington. If it were better known, 
it would probably be more subject to the invasion of 
sight-seers at the capital than the Washington monu- 
ment. But it goes quietly along, working out its own 
salvation, and that of thousands of poor sailors who 
never heard of Captain Bartlett, the 

" Cherub that sits up aloft, 
To take care of the Hfe of poor Jack." 

In the same building is the Office of Naval Intelli- 
gence, where a chart is published, indicating from 
month to month the supply of coal at all the coaling 
stations of the world, and also the means of telegraphic 
communication accessible to mariners wherever they 
may find themselves. 

In natural sequence should here come an account of 
the life-saving service, which, in America, is not an 



The Government's Non-political Work. 429 

institution supported by voluntary contributions as in 
England, but is a department under the government. 
As a result of this difference, it is claimed that the 
American service is more efficient than that of Brit- 
ain ; that a discipline almost military in its severity is 
necessary to obtain the best results where groups of 
men are working under the conditions usual at wrecks. 
This is a healthful and worthy rivalry. Let this be the 
only form of contention between the mother and her 
child land. Details of this excellent organization are 
not called for here. Lord Salisbury's encomium is as 
applicable to the life-saving service as to the Senate — 
'* marvellous in its efficiency and strength." 

An important work done by the United States 
Army is the improvement of rivers and harbors. Here 
again, under republican institutions, the profession of 
arms has been turned to noble account. To do battle 
with shoals and snags would be considered poor work 
for the Burnabys and Hobarts of Britain ; but in the 
Republic it has ever been held that to save life is a 
higher function than to destroy it. Great America's 
army, no larger than that of insignificant Roumania, 
is set to battle with nature, not with patriotic barbar- 
ians defending their own land. In the Signal Service, 
in the improvement of rivers and harbors, in the sur- 
vej^s of Western Territories, the Republic finds for her 
soldiers work which, while injuring no nation, brings 
them honor, and the country security and comfort. So 



430 Triumphant Democracy, 

extensive is the work done by the httle army of the 
RepubHc, that in this division of rivers and harbors 
improvements alone, the year's report covers over three 
hundred pages. Upward of a hundred miihon dollars 
have been spent by the engineer corps on rivers and 
harbors since the beginning of the government ; and 
the present annual appropriation for this purpose is 
still very large. 

The light-house board, a division of the Treasury 
Department, has also done much important work in a 
like direction. It has control of nine hundred light- 
houses and light-ships, a thousand beacon lights on 
Western rivers, and more than four thousand buoys, 
fog signals, and other minor aids to navigation. It 
employs two thousand five hundred light-keepers, crews 
of light-ships, etc. Here again American ingenuity is 
conspicious. Many dangerous reefs are marked by a 
whistling-buoy which can be heard more than fifteen 
miles. The rougher the sea the louder this automatic 
syren sends out its v/arning voice. This " Yankee no- 
tion " has been adopted by Europe. 

Still tending to the facilitation of commerce is the 
Coast Survey, a division which has supplemented its 
regular function by much special scientific work. It 
has originated methods of determining longitude ; ex- 
plored the Gulf Stream ; solved the problem of tides in 
the Gulf of Mexico, where only one tide occurs in 
twenty-four hours ; studied the laws governing tidal 



The Government's Non-political Work, 431 

currents, and the best methods of controlHng them so 
as to aid navigation by deepening channels ; and 
achieved many other valuable results. 

The International Fisheries Exhibitions in London 
and Berlin have given a European renown to the work 
of the United States Fish Commission. At the closing 
of the London Exhibition, the Prince of Wales stated 
that " in many things pertaining to the fisheries, Eng- 
land is far behind the United States." And Professor 
Huxley has expressed his belief that no nation " has 
comprehended the question of dealing with fish in so 
thorough, excellent, and scientific a spirit as that of the 
United States." The Rev. W. S. Lach Szyrma, of 
Newlyn, England, has made a trite comparison. ''At 
the Paris exhibition he considered Europe as a man in 
full vigor, Asia as a decrepit old man, America as a 
boy, Australia as a baby. In the present Fishery 
Exhibition the case was different. America was the 
gem of the exhibition." That these encomiums were 
justified is proved by the fact that at London the 
United States exhibit secured fifty gold medals, forty- 
seven of silver, thirty of bronze, and twenty-four di- 
plomas. At the Berlin Exhibition America again 
headed the list, securing six gold medals out of ten. 
No wonder Europeans are astonished. 

"If there be," wrote, in 1879, Sir Rose Price, author of " The 
Two Americas," " any race of people '?i\\o exhibit more shrewdness 
than others in their ability to grasp and manipulate the apparently 



432 Triumphant Democracy, 

indistinct elements of wliat may lead to a commercial success, or 
be of ultimate benefit to their nation, those people are the Ameri- 
cans. No government throws away less money in useless expend- 
itures, and no representative assembly more narrowly criticises 
waste ; yet the Americans subsidize considerable sums of their 
national revenue for the purpose of restocking the rivers of the 
Eastern States by artificial culture, and with praiseworthy consid- 
eration their government supports several ably-conducted estab- 
lishments from which fish ova are distributed gratis to all those 
who choose to apply. The very railroads assist this enterprise, and 
some by moderating their tariff, and others by generously convey- 
ing the ova free of charge, give every possible encouragement to 
what their common sense tells them must lead to so much national 
good. To expect an English Government to exhibit the same 
amount of foresight, or to practice a similar generosity, would be 
to credit them with virtues which have yet to be developed. The 
American example, however, should not be lost sight of." 

The extent of the operations of the Fish Commis- 
sion can only be barely indicated here. One fact alone 
shows the gigantic nature of its operations : it has 
planted German carp in thirty thousand separate bodies 
of water, distributed through all the States and Terri- 
tories in the Union. 

The American Navy adds to its numerous non-com- 
batant functions the principal astronomical work done 
in the United States. It daily gives to every important 
city the correct time, and furnishes some data for the 
government publication, The Nautical Almanac, The 
naval observatory has acquired a just celebrity by its 
discovery of the satellites of Mars. 



The Govern7nenf s Non-political Work, 433 

The Patent Office and museum is another important 
division of the government at Washington. Here are 
many thousand models of inventions of every possible 
kind. The list contains over four hundred different 
patents of a nut-lock. The policy of the Republic is 
to make the patent law the encouragement of inventors 
and not the means of revenue ; with such good results 
that more than three hundred thousand patents have 
been issued since 1836. Last year the total patents 
issued exceeded twenty-four thousand — nearly eighty 
per cent, more than in 1880. Forty years ago the aver- 
age number of patents issued annually did not exceed 
five or six hundred. If one wishes to reaHze the extent 
and versatility of the American inventor, it is needful 
to visit the enormous museum at the Patent Office. 
Miles of shelves and cases are filled with models, while 
acres of drawings and designs adorn the walls or lie 
hidden away in drawers. English visitors are usually 
greatly impressed with what they see there. Herbert 
Spencer could not withold his admiration. He says: 

" The enormous museum of patents which I saw in Washington 
is significant of the attention paid to inventors' claims ; and the 
nation profits immensely from having, in this direction (though not 
in others), recognized property in mental products. Beyond ques- 
tion, in respect of mechanical appliances, the Americans are ahead 
of all nations." 

One of the most important factors in the diffusion 

of knowledge among men is found in the system of 

28 



434 Truiinphant Democracy, 

international exchange carried on by the Smithsonian 
Institution. Originally intended for the distribution of 
its own publications, the Institution by degrees ex- 
tended its privileges to learned societies of both hemis- 
pheres, and at present it forms a medium of scientific 
intercourse between about seven hundred home insti- 
tutions and four thousand establishments distributed 
over all parts of the inhabited globe. The publications 
of any learned society in the world, whether in Japan, 
Norway, or California, if sent to Washington, will be 
distributed throughout the world, without cost to the 
sender. In 1885 about eighty thousand packages of 
books were thus sent from the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion, containing in some cases its own publications, in 
others United States blue books, or the transactions of 
various learned societies, in America and elsewhere. 
Many railway and steamship lines carry these pack- 
ages gratuitously. In this work the Smithsonian Insti- 
tion stands alone. It is probably the most effective 
means of diffusing knowledge ever attempted, for it 
circulates to the ends of the world the knowledge 
which, put into volumes of transactions and blue-books, 
has hitherto been relegated to the shelves of public 
libraries. 

The official publications of the results of these bu- 
reaus are so numerous, that the United States Govern- 
ment is the largest printer and publisher in the world. 
In the book of estimates for the next fiscal year, just 



The Government'' s Non-political Work. 435 

sent to Congress, $1,380,000 (^^276,000) is asked for 
wages alone. There are on the pay-roll four hundred 
compositors. Fifty proof-readers are constantly em- 
ployed, besides one hundred and fifteen press feeders 
and thirty-four ruling-machine feeders. The estimates 
call for one hundred thousand reams of printing paper, 
or forty-eight million sheets, equal to seven hundred 
and sixty-eight million pages. Of the annual report 
of the Commissioner of Agriculture, three hundred 
thousand copies are distributed. The reports of the 
Geological Survey, the Bureau of Ethnology, the re- 
ports of the Commission of Fish and Fisheries, the 
Bulletins of the National Museum, and hundreds of 
other documents and reports are sent free and postage 
paid almost to everybody or anybody. For the prepa- 
ation of this chapter more than seventy separate gov- 
ernment publications were obtained, the whole forming 
a perfect encyclopaedia of governmental methods and 
results, of progress in art, science, and material re- 
sources; and this little library did not cost its collector 
a cent. Indeed, in some instances the books v/ere sent 
free from Washington to New York. Such liberality 
is unparalleled. The Republic is clearly no niggard. 
Much other extra governmental work is done either 
by the government or, as in the case of the Smithsonian 
Institution, under its direction ; but further details are 
not called for here. However opinions may differ as to 
the propriety of a government engaging in every kind of 



43^ Triumphant Democracy. 

non-governmental work, there can be no difference of 
opinion as to the excellent methods and important re- 
sults of these bureaus in Washington. Most of them 
are models of equipment and method. Of the hundreds 
of thousands of packages sent out by Mr. Boehmer of the 
Smithsonian Institution not one has been lost. These 
offices are outside the influence of politics, and run on 
from year to year as freely and frictionless as if political 
parties were as distant as the satellites of Mars, or as 
deep down in the sea as the protoplasmal jelly fish 
about which these men of scientific light and leading 
write and print monologues at the public expense. 
Another fact elicited is that American progress is not 
limited to increasing crops or growing herds. In the 
higher domain of mind, in the alleviation of suffering, 
in the saving of life, in the facilitation of .commerce, in 
the exploration of the world and the universe, in every- 
thing which tends to give life breadth as well as length, 
to make it more complete and more worth living, the 
Republic has contributed a very large quota. 

This high estimate of the value of the government 
bureaus has often been concurred in by foreigners. 
More than one celebrated Englishman has lamented to 
me that his country should be so far behind in similar 
work. It is the cue of the ruling classes of Europe to 
misrepresent the government of the Democracy. They 
v/ould have the people believe that it is weak, corrupt, 



The Gover7ime7it' s Non-political Work, 437 

and inefficient ; but those who examine the subject 
carefully know it to be surprisingly strong, pure, effi- 
cient, and marvellously able. In none of the depart- 
ments named in this chapter have politics the slightest 
influence. No politician could be found willing to 
apply any test but the suitability of the man for the 
work to be performed. These departments are gener- 
ally under the control of permanent army and navy 
officers, w4io, I think my readers will not fail to note, 
are put by the Republic to much higher uses than 
the performance of their " professional " duties. 

If we leave the general work performed under gov- 
ernmental control and consider what the people do for 
themselves, we are even more strongly impressed than 
ever by their extraordinary power of administration. 

Take the city electrical service as an illustration. 
Police officers, fire-engine houses, hotels, cab stands, 
railway stations, banks, offices, and private houses are 
in direct electrical communication ; and telephonic com- 
munication is rapidly becoming no less general. 

The American fire department again is admittedly 
the best known. The horses are trained to rush out of 
their stalls into the shafts at the sound of the alarm, a 
single motion causes the harness to fall upon their 
backs. The men slide down posts from their bedrooms 
to the stable floor to economize time. 

The ambulance corps is unknown beyond the Re- 
public. Its headquarters are at the principal hospitals. 



438 Triumphant Democracy, 

Electric communication apprises the attendant of an ac- 
cident, as in the case of the fire-engine ; the ambulance 
with its soft bed, in charge of two surgeons, is instantly- 
dashing through the streets, sounding its bell which no- 
tifies every vehicle to turn out of its path. In a short 
time the injured is lying upon a bed under charge of 
competent surgeons and is conveyed as rapidly as 
possible to the hospital. London physicians who see 
this American plan never fail to lament that even Lon- 
don has not yet attempted to produce any organiza- 
tion of like humane character. 

This remarkable talent for organization which the 
American people possess probably was never more clear- 
ly displayed than in the Sanitary and Christian Com- 
missions instituted by private citizens during the Civil 
War. The military rations of the government com- 
pared to those of any other government are to say the 
least exceedingly liberal — all well enough for professional 
soldiers, but for the patriotic volunteer who went forth 
from his home to defend the Union as a duty, that was 
quite another matter. Nothing was too good for him. 
The people demanded that as far as possible every 
luxury should be his; and to provide this committees 
were appointed in the cities and contributions solicited. 
The movement resulted in the two general organi- 
zations named above, which distributed more than $25,- 
cx)0,ooo (ii" 5, 000,000) worth of extra supplies among 
the soldiers during the struggle. 



The Gover7i7ne7if s Noyi-political Work, 439 

The collection, transportation, and distribution of 
these supplies, which embraced everything from easy 
chairs for the wounded to delicacies for the sick, were 
admirably performed. 

Bret Harte gives a poetic description of the enthusi- 
astic reception accorded by the troops to the wagons 
of the Commission as they pushed to the front filled 
with the tender offerings of a grateful people. 

"HOW ARE YOU, SANITARY?" 

"Down the picket-guarded lane 
Rolled the comfort-laden wain, 
Cheered by shouts that shook the plain. 

Soldier-like and merr)' ; 
Phrases such as camps may teach. 
Sabre-cuts of Saxon speech, 
Such as ' Bully ! ' • Them's the peach ! ' 

'Wade in, Sanitary !' 

" Right and left the caissons drew 
As the car went lumbering through. 
Quick succeeding in review 

Squadrons military ; 
Sun-burnt men with beards like frieze, 
Smooth-faced boys, and cries like these, 
' U. S. San. Com.' ' That's the cheese ! ' 

' Pass in, Sanitary- ! ' 

" In such cheer it struggled on 
Till the battle front was won, 
Then the car, its journey done, 
Lo ! was stationary ; 



440 Triumphant Democracy, 

And where bullets whistling fly, 
Came the sadder, fainter cry, 
'Help us, brothers, ere we die, 
Save us, Sanitary ! * 

" Such the work. The phantom flies. 
Wrapped in battle clouds that rise. 
But the brave, whose dying eyes. 

Veiled and visionar)^, 
See the jasper gates swung wide, 
See the parted throng outside — 
Hears the voice to those who ride : 

' Pass in, Sanitary ! ' " 

But while these supplies were pushed forward to 
the front the attentions bestowed upon regiments pass- 
ing to and from different fields of action were not less 
characteristic. I was then Superintendent of the Penn- 
sylvania Railway at Pittsburg, through which, perhaps, 
more troops passed than through any other city. "So- 
ciety " there determined that every regiment should 
be fed — banqueted would be nearer the correct word. 
No hungry volunteer should ever pass through ihat 
city without being made to feel that a grateful people 
wished to do him honor. 

This being resolved upon, the young ladies, the 
daughters of the rich men, the millionaires, resolved 
that by no menials' hands should the defenders of 
their country be fed ; they would organize and divide 
the duty among themselves, and with their own hands 



The Government' s Non-political Work, 441 

serve the men. The City Hall was placed at their dis- 
posal, tables and cooking arrangements provided, and 
the work began. Every night the list of ladies and 
gentlemen subject to call during that night was posted 
in the Hall. It mattered not at what hour a regiment 
or detachment of troops was to arrive, a telegram from 
my ofifice apprised the City Hall, the men on duty went 
the rounds, one, two, three or four o'clock in the morn- 
ing as the case might be, and one after another of the 
ladies were called and escorted through the darkness to 
the Hall. 

One of the sights of my life — I can scarcely recall 
the scene without my eyes fiUing with tears even to- 
day — was to see a regiment of bronzed men (such 
splendid fellows, as unlike professional cutthroats as 
black is unlike white), to see them marched into the 
Hall, seated at tables loaded with the finest food, and 
then to witness their amazement as it dawned upon 
them, which, of course, it soon did, that the young 
women serving were not paid servants, but the darlings 
of ^society who had risen in the night and come forth 
to do them this honor. 

The meal ended, the colonel rose and asked for three 
cheers for the Pittsburg Committee. Imagine how the 
boys in blue responded ! But when, as was usually the 
case, there seemed something still lacking, some irre- 
pressible longing which must find vent, and some one 
from the ranks called out, " Three cheers and a tiger for 



442 Triumphant Democj^acy. 

the young ladies of Pittsburg " — I hear their yell yet. 
I have seen enthusiastic crowds and heard ringing 
cheers, but of all the outbursts I ever heard, that of 
the bronzed veterans in honor of the young ladies 
of Pittsburg takes the palm ; and mark you, men 
so treated went to the front determined to fight as 
they cheered. Plow could they fail, when the women 
of the land of their love came forth and said '' Night 
or day, we are proud to be your servants." Six hun- 
dred and sixty-four thousand troops were fed in Pitts- 
burg in the manner I have described. The funds 
were always forthcoming, and at one fair held in the 
city for the Sanitary Committee, $300,000 were netted 
(;^6o,ooo). 

The age of miracles may be past. Matthew Ar- 
nold is authority for the statement that the case is 
closed against them, but to all those v/ho extol the 
past and dwell upon its heroes and heroines, intimating 
that our own age is less heroic than some age which 
has preceded it, let us make answer, that for one true 
hero who existed in any age, a hundred surround us 
to-day ; and as for heroines, the world has scarcely 
ever known what one -was until the present age. 
Woman didn't know enough, as a rule, to be heroic 
until America educated her properly. There are a 
thousand heroines in the world to-day for every one 
any preceding age has produced. I thought twenty- 
odd years ago, and I am still of opinion, that there 



The Government s Non-political Work. 443 

were more heroic young ladies in Pittsburg alone than 
the whole world could have produced not so very long 
ago, and Pittsburg was but one of many cities equally 
stirred to its depths. I have seen the American peo- 
ple, young, middle-aged and old, men and women, dem- 
ocrat and republican, touched upon the vital chord, 
and have heard and felt the response. Let no mon- 
archical enemy of America — and all monarchists are 
her enemies — ever again flatter himself that the unity 
of the Republic does not command at all times the 
lives, the fortunes, and the sacred honor of the Ameri- 
can people. 

When the Americans determined to hold a Centen- 
nial Exhibition they went to work at it in the same 
business fashion ; not a governmental official was called 
upon. They organized in Philadelphia, and the result 
was that not only was the display the best ever made 
in any country, according to the judgment of the for- 
eign visitors, but the exhibition v/as visited by more 
people than ever before visited an exhibition. The fa- 
cilities for transportation were such that the millions 
were moved on time and without accident. And, more 
marvellous than all else, the Centennial was so managed 
that it paid all expenses. An advance made by the gov- 
ernment was repaid in full. The government had nothing 
to do with the management ; it was exclusively an affair 
of the people and conducted throughout by them. 

This universal self-dependence is manifest every- 



444 Triumphant Democracy. 

where and in everything. I stood with Archibald 
Forbes on the State Department steamer at Yorktown, 
Virginia, when the centennial anniversary 6f the surren- 
der of Cornwallis was celebrated. We saw the disem- 
barkation of some thirty thousand militia troops and a 
grand review. Mr. Forbes remarked, *' What surprises 
me more than anything I have seen to-day, is the absence 
of a body of ofricials to take charge of the masses and 
assign them to places, etc. Every American seems to 
understand just where he is to go, what he is to do, and 
how best to do it, and then he quietly goes and does it, 
and all comes out successfully. There is nothing like 
this in Europe." Such is the universal testimony of 
competent foreign observers. 

The cause of this self-governing capacity lies in the 
fact that from his earliest youth the republican feels 
himself a man. He is called upon to participate in the 
management of the local 'affairs of his township, county, 
or city, or in his relations with his fellows, in his church, 
trades-union, co-operative store, or reading-room, or 
even in his musical or dramatic society, base ball, 
cricket, or boating club. Everywhere he is ushered into 
a democratic system of government in which he stands 
upon an equal footing with his fellows, and in which he 
feels himself bound to exercise the rights of a citizen. 
Those with talent for management naturally rise to 
command in their small circles ; and upon great public oc- 
casions, when thousands of such circles are massed, the 



The Government' s Non-political Work, 445 

orderly habits prevailing in each circle render possible 
the easy and proper management of the vast crowd. 

We can confidently claim for the Democracy that 
it produces a people self-reliant beyond all others ; a 
people who depend less upon governmental aid and 
more upon themselves in all the complex relations of 
society than any people hitherto known. At the same 
time their individual talent for organization and admin- 
istration has been so concentrated as to produce through 
ofHcial channels various departments of universal bene- 
fit to the commonwealth, none of which have ever been 
equalled, and some of which have never even been at- 
tempted under monarchical government. We look in 
vain throughout the world for such beneficent organiza- 
tions connected with the government of any country as 
those described in this chapter. So far, therefore, from 
the government of the people falling behind the gov- 
ernment of a class in the art of government, we are 
amazed at the contrast presented between the old form 
and the new in favor of the new. The truth is that 
the monarchical form lacks the vigor and elasticity 
necessary to cope with the republican in any depart- 
ment of government whatever. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE NATIONAL BALANCE SHEET. 

"A national debt is vicious in principle, deceitful in its effects upon 
the State which borrows, hurtful to posterity which must pay, and tend- 
ing to lead rulers into useless wars and extravagant expenditure of pub- 
lic money." — Thomas Spencer. 

National debts grow troublesome. Year after year 
the burden they lay upon the productive energies of 
nations becomes harder and harder to bear. The twelve 
years between 1870 and 1882 have eclipsed all others in 
the amounts added to the already sorely burdened 
masses of Europe. Russia has saddled herself with 
$1,365,000,000 (i^ 2 7 3, 000,00c) more debt in these short 
twelve years, an average increase of nearly $115,000,000 
(;^2 3, 000,000) per annum, a load fit to weigh an empire 
down. France's obligations have swollen to $2,215,000,- 
000 (i^ 443, 000,000), and even Spain must be in the 
fashion and add $525,000,000 (i^ 10 5, 000,000), and Italy, 
not to be behind in this mad race, has contracted $740,- 
000,000 {^148,000,000) more, and even poor decaying 
Turkey has found credulous capitalists to lend her 
$90,000,000 (;^ 1 8,000,000) during this period. The ag- 
gregate of these obligations in Europe has increased, 
since 1848, from $14,940,000,000 (i^2, 98 8, 000,000) to 
$20,935,000,000 (;£'4, 1 87,000,000), and most of this in- 
crease has been consumed in wars which have left 



The National Balance Sheet. 447 

matters much as they were or would have been, if 
never waged. Such is the inevitable result of anti-dem- 
ocratic rule. Britain alone, let us record it to her credit, 
is the only power which has resolutely reduced her 
debt. It is less by $465,000,000 (i^93,ooo,ooo) in 1884 
than it was in 1857, while her vv^ealth has enormously 
increased. It is easy to meet deficits by the proceeds 
of new loans, but it were well that nations should be of 
opinion with the Chinese laundryman of New York who 
refused to give a note bearing interest. " No notee," 
said our heathen Chinee, " notee walkee, walkee allee 
timee, walkee no sleepee." Nations forget this peculiar- 
ity of new issues ; sleeping or waking the load of interest 
swells noiselessly on Saturdays and Sundays alike. 

The Republic emulates her mother's example and 
cuts down her debt with unexampled rapidity. It is 
a curious fact that these, the two English-speaking 
nations, should be the only ones who resolutely set 
their faces strongly in the debt-discharging direction. 
The other races appear content to borrow as long as they 
can and let the future take care of itself. We are not 
without ominous signs that in some instances the strain 
upon their resources cannot be increased further without 
danger. Perhaps the Democracy is soon to awaken to 
the truth that these vast accumulations of debt have 
their real source in the rule of monarchs and courts, 
whose jealousies and dynastic am.bitions, stimulated by 
the great military classes always created by them, pro- 



448 Triumphant Democracy, 

duce the wars or continual preparation for wars which 
eat up the people's substance and add to their burdens 
year after year. A nation with a large standing army 
and navy is bound to make wars. 

One great advantage which the Democracy has se- 
cured for itself in America is its comparative freedom 
from debt. The ratio of indebtedness to wealth is 
strikingly small. Including all debt, municipal, State, 
and national, it is but four and one-twentieth per cent., 
the national debt alone being less than three and a half 
per cent, as compared with eight and three-quarters 
per cent, in Britain ; eleven and a third per cent, in 
France ; twenty-two and a quarter per cent, in Italy ; 
twenty-four and a half per cent, in Spain ; and twenty- 
five and a half per cent, in Portugal. This was in 1880; 
since then the reduction of the national debt and the 
increase of wealth have been so great that it is close 
upon tv/o per cent. — not one-fourth that of Britain, nor 
one-fifth that of France. 

Contrary to the general impression, the debts of the 
various States which comprise the Union are trifling, 
being but six-tenths of one per cent, upon the valua- 
tion. Several States have no debt, others have rev- 
enues from public lands sufficient to pay the entire 
expenses of the State government. The municipal 
debts of the cities of America are likewise very small 
compared to those of Britain, being only one and two- 
tenths per cent, upon the valuation of city property. 



The National Balance Sheet. 449 

Taking all the State and city debts of the Union 
and rating them according to valuation of property, 
both combined do not amount to one-fifth of the city 
debt of Manchester, nor to one-tenth the debt of Bir- 
mingham, while Liverpool owes in proportion to its 
wealth, £^0 ($2 50) for every £\ ($5) owed by the 
cities of America taken as a whole. If we add to the 
municipal debts of America, the State, and also the 
national debt, Liverpool's municipal debt alone is still 
seven times greater than all of these combined. Even 
the city of Manchester, which does not rate high as a 
debtor, ov/es in its corporate capacity alone in pro- 
portion to its wealth two and a half times as much 
as the ratio of indebtedness of all American cities, 
all State debts, and all debts of the national govern- 
ment. 

The cities of Great Britain owe $765,000,000 (;^I53,- 
000,000) ; those of America, notwithstanding their 
greater number, population and wealth, only $575,000,- 
000 (;^ 1 1 5,000,000). If to the American municipal debt 
we add the debt of all the States we have only $865,- 
000,000 (;;^ 1 73,000,000) for city and State debt as against 
$765,000,000 (;^ 1 5 3,000,000) in Britain for city debt 
alone. The following are given by Mulhall : 



DEBT TO VALUATION. 



Liverpool, . . 32.5 
Manchester, . . lo.o 

29 



DEBT TO VALUATION. 



Birmingham, . . 21.8 
Leeds, . . .15.8 



450 Triumphant Democracy, 

London, which is in debt only three per cent., finds 
a worthy compeer in Philadelphia whose debt is even 
a fraction less. New York stands with Manchester at 
ten and four-tenths. America has no city so deeply 
involved as Liverpool, Birmingham, or Leeds. But in 
the case of Liverpool I am reminded of Artemus Ward 
who met in London a gentleman from that city who 
told him *' there were some docks or something which 
he should have seen ; " and in regard to Birmingham, 
no one who has been privileged to examine the work 
which that model of municipal life is doing will think 
the debt unwisely incurred. It is evident, however, 
that with all the push of the American, he is distanced 
by his illustrious ancestor in the race for debt in his 
corporate capacity. 

The republican has so managed that the annual 
charge for all debt against him per head is not one- 
fourth of that which his brother in Britain has incurred. 
Every Briton owes of national debt, $iio (i^22) ; every 
Frenchman, $120 (^^24) ; every Italian, $90 {£\'^)\ while 
the American owes but S30 (;^6). Every Canadian 
ov/es of public debt alone m proportion to wealthy $6.15 
(;^i 4^- 6d) ; every Australian, $16.15 (;^3 4^ 6d), v/hile, 
as we have before seen, the American, with all his 
resources and rosy expectation, has burdened him.self 
with only $3.49 (14^), and is rapidly paying that off. 

This is but one more added to the proofs that lie 
open at all points to any one who will take the trouble 



The National Balance Sheet. 451 

to examine and compare the facts that the masses 
made equal poHtically under the sway of Democracy 
are not prone to wild excesses. They have developed 
in the United States into one of the most conservative 
communities in the world ; conservative of their pow- 
erful government, of their Supreme Court and of their 
Senate, and of all that makes for the security of civil 
and religious liberty, of the rights of property and 
the constitutional right of each individual citizen to 
the pursuit of happiness m his own way, subject only 
to the limitations that he interfere not with the enjoy- 
ment of the same right by others. Let the student of 
American institutions direct his attention to this fact, 
and see whether the Republic be not a very con- 
servative Republic indeed. Nowhere is so well under- 
stood the difference between liberty and license. 

In 1835, just half a century ago, the Republic was 
not only free from debt but had a surplus in the 
treasury. How to dispose of this surplus was a matter 
of grave concern. No wonder. For assuredly there 
existed no precedent in the history of the world — and 
statesmen are the slaves of precedent — to throw light 
upon the novel question, not how a nation can wipe 
out its debt, that would be hard enough, but how a 
nation is to get rid of its surplus. Even as late as 
1857, o^ty twenty-eight years ago, the debt was but 
$29,000,000, not ;^6,ooo,ooo. To-day the interest-bear- 
ing debt is about $1,500,000,000 (;^300,ooo,ooo). 



452 Triumphant Democracy, 

My readers may be ready to suggest that in no de- 
partment has the RepubHc made greater progress than 
in running into debt. Only twenty-eight years ago in 
debt thirty milHons of dollars, and to-day fifty times 
that sum. It is quite as extraordinary an increase as 
is seen in her growth of wheat. Even the growth of 
the Bessemer steel industry does not much exceed it. 
And as we have had to award her the prize for rapid 
development in numerous branches over the mother 
land, let us hasten to credit the latter with setting an 
example to her precocious child, for the debt of Britain 
during the past thirty years has not only not increased, 
but has been reduced $310,000,000 (;^62, 000,000). 

The explanation of the increased debt of the Re- 
public is, of course, found in the civil conflict between 
slavery and freedom. The two systems were antagon- 
istic, and the irrepressible issue had to be met, sooner 
or later. Either the equality of the citizen was or was 
not the foundation of the State, there was no middle 
ground. It has been decided, but the cost was fright- 
ful. That part of it unpaid at t^he close of the strug- 
gle which could be represented by dollars, and that 
much the smaller part, amounted to $2,770,000,000 
(^554,000,000). Unadjusted claims subsequently paid 
made the total debt more than $3,000,000,000 (;^6oo,- 
000,000). Thus stood the account in 1866, twenty 
years ago. The annual interest charge was no less 
than $146,000,000 (nearly i; 30,000,000), being two mil- 



The National Balance Sheet. 453 

lions sterling more than that of Britain. Many were 
the predictions throughout Europe that the masses 
who held full and unlimited sway would never take 
such a load upon their shoulders, and patiently endure 
the taxation necessary to carry it, much less pay it off. 
Much of the debt had been contracted at excessive 
rates of interest (six per cent.), and at periods when 
less than fifty per cent, in gold was obtained for the 
bonds issued. Universal suffrage could never be 
brought to pay back in gold the par value of such 
issues. It would require a government of the educated 
and enlightened few, a monarchy for instance, to keep 
its financial honor untarnished. In Britain such ideas 
prevailed, especially among financiers. Mr. Gladstone 
gives them expression in " Kin Beyond the Sea : " 

"In twelve years she (America) has reduced her debt by one 
hundred and fifty-eight million pounds, or at the rate of thirteen 
million pounds for each year.* In each twelve months she has 
done what we did in eight years ; her self-command, self-denial, 
and wise forethought for the future have been, to say the least, eight- 
fold ours. These are facts which redounded greatly to her honor ; 
and the historian will record with surprise that an enfranchised 
nation tolerated burdens which in this country a selected class, 
possessed of the representation, did not dare to face, and that the 
most unmitigated Democracy known to the annals of the world 
resolutely reduced at its own cost prospective liabilities of the 



* This rate of payment is little more than half the rate which has 
prevailed since 1880. 



454 Truimphant Democracy, 

State, which the aristocratic, and plutocratic, and monarchical 
Government of the United Kingdom had been contented ignobly to 
hand over to posterity." 

The financiers of the Continent, and especially of 
Germany, knew the character of Democracy better, 
and profited accordingly. Many fortunes were made 
by investments in American bonds, which rapidly 
doubled in value. The most notable case in my own 
experience was that of an uncle in Scotland who had 
always, like John Bright, believed in the Republic, and 
had impHcit faith in the American people in general, 
and perhaps in his nephew in particular. At the darkest 
hour of the conflict, when gold was worth nearly three 
times the value of currency, this staunch friend of the 
Republic remitted me a considerable sum of money, 
saying: "Invest this for me as you think best, but if 
you put it in United States bonds it will add to my 
pleasure, for then I can feel that in her hour of danger 
I have never lost faith in the Republic." Three times 
the value of his gold when remitted, and double the 
value of his patriotic investment since, has rewarded his 
faith in the triumph of Democracy. 

Starting then twenty years ago, 1866, with $3,000,- 
000,000 (i^6oo,ooo,ooo) as the national burden, with an 
annual interest charge of nearly $146,000,000 (^^29,- 
200,000), what has the Democracy done up to January 
I, 1885? 

It has paid more than half of the huge sum and re- 



The National Balance Sheet, 455 

duced it to less than $i,500,ooo,cxx> or ^300,000,000. 
Here is the last monthly statement : 

Debt, less cash in Treasury, January i, 1886, . $1,443,454,826 
Debt, less cash in Treasury, December i, 1885, 1,452,544,766 
Decrease of Debt during- the month, . . . 9,089,940 

The interest charge has fallen from $146,000,000 
(;^29, 200,000) to S5i»ooo,ooo (i^ 1 0,200,000). In two 
successive years of this period the reduction amounted 
to $270,000,000 (i^ 54,000,000), but this rate being con- 
sidered too rapid, taxes were repealed and large sums 
voted for increased pensions to the sailors and soldiers 
who crushed the rebellion. 

The American has to continue for only twelve years 
more to reduce the national debt as he has for the past 
twenty years in order to wipe it out entirely. It may 
confidently be predicted that ere the close of this cen- 
tury, extraordinary events excepted, the last bond of the 
RepubHc will be publicly burned at Washington with 
imposing ceremonies, amidst the universal rejoicings of 
the people. The Democracy seems destined to set an 
example in many ways to the monarchies of the world, 
not the least important being that of a people reso- 
lutely pursuing the policy of reducing its debt until 
the last dollar is paid, that its resources may remain 
unimpaired to meet the emergencies which may arise to 
affect its position among the nations. Where is the 
monarchy which can vie with this Democracy in con- 
servative finance or thoughtful care for its country's 



456 Triumphant Democracy, 

future? Mr. Gladstone says the parent land ignobly 
hands her debt over to posterity. 

From a position so discredited that six per cent, 
bonds did not net more than half their par value in 
gold, the government of the people has risen in the 
estimation of the capitalists of the world to so high 
a point that its bonds bearing only three per cent, 
command a premium. What the world thinks of De- 
mocracy is this : that beyond the credit of any nation, 
even higher than that of Great Britain, stands the obli- 
gations of a government founded upon the equality of 
the citizen. 

A leading Liberal Cabinet Minister (not Mr. Glad- 
stone, nor Mr. Chamberlain, for they know America not 
much but still a little better), once asked me whether, 
in a contingency which then threatened to arise in 
the Republic, namely, a contested Presidential election 
(and which did indeed arise and passed away harm- 
lessly), there would not be a revolution which would 
involve the stability of our institutions. My reply was, 
" Have you noticed to-day's quotations of American 
three per cents. ? " " No," he said, '' what are they ? " 
" Higher than your's ! " I said, and looked straight at 
him. That was all, but it was sufficient. Whenever a 
man, even a Liberal Cabinet Minister, begins to doubt 
the stability of a government of the people, for the 
people, and by the people, — and there are Liberal Min- 
isters whose faith in the Democracy is as a grain of 



The National Balance Sheet. 457 

mustard seed — ask him why the credit of this new 
Democracy stands before that of the old Monarchy ? 
Why would the world lend this Democracy more 
money and upon better terms than it would lend the 
best government of the few ? Why does the world 
pay for American three per cents, more than it will pay 
for the British three per cents. 1 The answer is 
obvious. Because the reign of the whole of the people 
of a State is more secure than the reign of any class in 
a State can possibly be. A class may be upset, nay is 
sure to be sooner or later ; the people are for ever 
and ever in power. 

THE REVENUES OF THE GOVERNMENT. 

It was often said up to the breaking out of the 
slave-holder's rebellion in 1861, that the American did 
not know that he had a national government. Cer- 
tainly as far as taxation was concerned he had little to 
remind him of the fact. In 1830 the total revenues 
collected were not quite $2 per head i^s) ; in 1840 they 
had fallen below $1.25 (55), and even as late as i860, 
twenty-five years ago, the American enjoyed all the 
blessings of government at a cost of $1.75 {js) per 
annum. This was collected principally from customs 
and sales of public lands. There was no such thing 
known as an excise or internal tax, so that the citizen 
never was visited by a revenue officer of any kind. The 
American was born, lived, and died and v/as never asked 



458 Triumphant Democracy. 

to contribute a cent to his government. Unless he lived 
at a seaport and visited the custom-house he probably 
never saw a man whose duty it was to collect a national 
tax. In this blessed year of i860, the total national 
revenue was only $56,000,000 (;^i 1,200,000). In 1866 
it reached its maximum or $558,000,000 (i^" 1 1 1 ,600,000). 
After i860 war taxes were necessary and the repub- 
lican became aware of the fact, well known every- 
where else, that it costs money to wage war. Inter- 
nal and excise taxes were resorted to, and the citizen 
made the acquaintance of the revenue officer in full 
force. For the first time his revenues were made sub- 
ject to an income tax, fairest of all taxes in theory, 
most odious of all in practice. It was, however, a grad- 
uated income tax which exempted the masses, but ex- 
acted five per cent, upon the largest incomes. During 
the six years from 1861 to 1867 enormous sums, from 
$400,000,000 to $500,000,000 (;^8o,ooo,ooo to ;^ 100,000,- 
000), were raised by taxes by the general government. 
The republican might have fancied himself enjoying for 
a time the blessings of the British Monarchy, for the 
taxation was about equal, each nation drawing about 
$400,000,000 (;^ 80,000,000) per annum from its people. 
With the collapse of the Rebellion the Republic began 
to set its finances in order. Taxes were rapidly re- 
duced, and among the first to go was the income tax. 
Then followed the reduction or repeal of one internal 
tax after another till finally to-day, with the exception 



The National Balance Sheet. 459 

of the taxes on whiskey and tobacco, producing in the 
aggregate $145,000,000 (;^29,ooo,ooo), but few of a 
trifling character remain. With these exceptions the 
repubhcan knows nothing of internal taxation. His 
acquaintance with the revenue officer has almost ceased ; 
once more he is free. He has neither income tax nor 
legacy duty. 

We beg the careful attention of thoughtful moder- 
ate men to the fact that although the income tax was 
paid wholly by the few, yet the masses upon whom it 
had no direct bearing urged its repeal, because it was 
proved in practice that the honest were assessed while 
the dishonest escaped. Thus we get one more proof 
that the masses can always be trusted to act fairly and 
to correct injustice. 

Since 1866, twenty years ago, v/hen the national rev- 
enues from taxation amounted to a sum equal to $17 
(^^3 Zs) drawn from each man, woman, and child in the 
country, they had fallen in 1880 to less than $7 (28^) 
and of this more than %i (4s-) per head went to reduce 
the debt. 

The taxes are collected in America much as in 
Britain ; about equally from foreign imports and from 
home products, although the recent rapid repeals and 
reduction of internal taxes in America have some- 
what disturbed this division. In 1880 for instance the 
foreign products contributed more than the domestic, 
foreign giving $190,000,000 (;£■ 3 8,000,000) and domestic 



460 Triumphant De^nocracy. 

$125,000,000 (;^2 5,000,000). If it were not for the seem- 
ingly immovable determination of the people not to 
permit the manufacture of whiskey and tobacco to 
escape special taxation as articles, the free use of which 
should be discouraged, this difference between the pro- 
duction of taxation upon home and foreign products 
would soon be much greater ; for to sweep away the 
entire department of internal revenue and thus reduce 
the number of government officials and free the citizen 
entirely from their supervision is a temptation hard to 
resist by the American people. 

THE COST OF GOVERNMENT. 

We have seen that in 1880 the general government 
was in receipt of about $335,000,000 (say ;^67,ooo,ooo), 
but notwithstanding great reductions made in taxes, 
both tariff and internal, the receipts of 1882 and 1883 
reached $400,000,000 (;^ 80,000,000). As the official 
figures for these years are obtainable, we shall use 
them instead of those for 1880. How, then, does the 
Republic get rid of her eighty millions sterling per 
annum, a revenue about equal to that collected by 
the British Government? Here is the record for 1883. 
First, of course, for interest upon the national debt ; 
this required $50,000,000 (;^ 1 0,000,000). 

And what think you is the one greatest charge 
upon the State ? For what does the Republic spend 
most money? Republics are proverbially ungrateful, 



The National Balance Sheet, 461 

you know, so says the monarchist. Well, this Repub- 
lic certainly does not spend five millions of dollars per 
annum upon a single family and its appurtenances, nor 
lavish fortunes at one vote upon its high officials, or 
members of an aristocracy. Still it spends more money 
in pensions to the soldiers and sailors who served it in 
its hour of need than upon any branch of the service ; 
more than upon army and navy combined, more than 
the interest upon its debt, more than upon anything 
else. To reward these men — not one man or a few high 
officers alone, as is the case in Britain and elsewhere in 
Europe, but every man, private as well as commander, 
in settled proportions as to rank — the Republic spent, 
in 1883, no less than $66,000,000 (i^ 13,200,000). The 
Democracy may be trusted to insist, when they have 
the power, that the poor private who fought shall not 
be neglected when the State dispenses its rewards. I 
heard Mr. Cowen, the Radical — nay, the republican 
Member for Newcastle, in a speech in the House of 
Commons favoring the grant to Wolseley and Sey- 
mour, hold up to scorn the American Republic for the 
shabby manner in which it treated its servants. The 
difference here is just the difference between a mon- 
archy and a republic, between the rule of the people 
and the rule of a class. In the monarchy the officers 
are unduly rewarded by their class, who are in power, 
whether called Liberal or Conservative, still their class, 
while the private, who has few or none of his class as 



462 Triumphant Democracy. 

legislators, is neglected. In a Republic the first care 
is for the masses in army or navy, the privates, and 
their v^idows and orphans ; the officers come after, 
though both share liberally. So in all legislation, the 
good of the millions first, the luxuries of the few after- 
ward. This statement is worth emphasizing. The Re- 
public gives more each year as rewards to the brave men, 
and their widows and orphans, who defended the integ- 
rity of the nation when assailed, than she thinks it worth 
while to expend in maintaining all her military or naval 
forces. If republics are, as a rule, ungrateful, at least we 
find a notable exception to the rule in the case of the 
greatest republic of all. The truth is, that republics 
are only prudent in giving to the rich few, and prodigal 
to a fault in lavishing upon the poorer masses. This is 
a failing which leans to virtue's side. Time after time, 
since the close of the war, the pension roll has been en- 
larged and the payments increased. It seems as if the 
people could not lavish enough upon, or sufficiently 
testify their gratitude to, their soldiers and sailors who 
have been injured or have become disabled in their 
service. Even as I am correcting the proofs of this 
chapter the House of Representatives has passed by 
a vote of four to one an act to increase the pensions 
to soldiers' and sailors' widows twenty-five per cent, 
—from $8 (;^i 12^) to $10 (^2). 

To the charge that republics are ungrateful, the re- 
ply is that the one Republic gives more beyond their 



The National Balance Sheet, 463 

regular pay to its citizens who have served in army or 
navy than all the other governments of the world 
combined. 

Next in cost comes the War Department, which, al- 
though of ridiculously small dimensions compared with 
that of other civilized nations, I regret to chronicle, 
cost in 1883, no less than $49,000,000 (^9,800,000), 
which was exceptionally great. The cost averages 
about $40,000,000 (;^8,ooo,ooo). The Navy Department 
absorbed $15,000,000 (;^ 3, 000,000). 

As the army consists of but twenty-five thousand 
men, we cannot look for any reduction there till the 
vast unoccupied Territories are peopled. A strong- 
armed police force is required to keep the Indians in 
order, and the almost equally troublesome aggregate of 
restless spirits from all lands who naturally gravitate to 
the semi-civilized life which precedes the reign of law 
and order. In the States, as distinguished from the 
Territories, the American rarely sees a man in uniform, 
whose profession is the scientific killing of other men. 
The war expenditure, one is delighted to record, em- 
braces the improvement of harbor and rivers, and upon 
this highly useful work many of the officers are con- 
stantly engaged. The engineer corps has rendered ex- 
ceptionally valuable services in this department. An 
annual appropriation is made for improving rivers and 
harbors, $6,000,000 to $10,000,000 (i;" 1, 200,000 to £2,- 
000,000), and charged to the War Department, which 



464 Triumphant Democracy, 

sum should fairly be deducted from war expenditures, 
for this is not for destructive purposes, but emphati- 
cally in the interest of peace. 

The American people annually spend upon the 
three hundred thousand Indians scattered over the land 
about $6,000,000, equal to $20 (;^4) per Indian. They 
are as kindly treated as practicable. A commission of 
well-known philanthropic men of national reputation is 
appointed by the President to supervise all matters re- 
lating to these poor, unfortunate tribes. The success of 
the Indian policy may best be judged by the fact, that 
out of the total number of three hundred and ten thou- 
sand no less than sixty-six thousand are reported civil- 
ized, the proof of civilization being that they pay taxes ; 
and of all the proofs possible to adduce, we submit this 
is the most conclusive as to their civilization. The 
political economist, at least, will seek no further but 
rest satisfied. It is, indeed, surprising that one-fifth of 
all the Indians have abandoned their nomadic habits 
and embraced civilization. It is clear that the real live 
war-whooping Indian is being rapidly civilized off the 
face of the earth. We shall soon search as hopelessly 
over the pi aides for the "noble redman "as we should 
do over Scotch moors and glens for the Rob Roy of 
Scott. 

Under the head of miscellaneous come a thousand 
and one items of expenditure which embrace every- 
thing not under heads before given. The total is about 



The Nat{o7ial Balance Sheet. 



465 



J,ooo,ooo (about ;^ 13,600,000) in 1883. The principal 
items are for the agricultural, meteorological, and edu- 
cational departments and the various bureaus which by 
their varied and useful functions cause such astonish- 
ment and admiration in foreign visitors to Washington. 

As the Republic pays every official who renders ser- 
vice it may be interesting to compare the cost of this 
plan with that of the Monarchy which depends upon 
the gratuitous services of its legislators. Here is the 
account : 

THE REPUBLIC. 



The President, . . . . 

The Vice-President .... 

Seventy-four Senators ($5,000 or ;^i,ooo 
each), ...... 

Three hundred and twenty-five Represen- 
tatives ($5,000 or ;/^i,ooo each), 



$ 50,000 
9,000 

370,000 

1,625,000 



$2,054,000 



£ 10,000 
1,800 

74,000 

325,000 

^410,800 



THE MONARCHY. 



The Queen, ..... 
Prince and Princess of Wales, 
Other Members of the Royal Family, 



$3,100,000 
600,000 
600,000 



$4,300,000 



^619.379 
120,000 
1 2 1 ,000 

;^86o,379 



Members of the Cabinet are paid about the same in 

both countries. 

I have knov/n well-informed Britons who believed 

that the cost of government in America was greater 
30 



466 Triumphant Democracy. 

than their own. The figures given prove that the 
amount paid by the RepubHc for the four hundred offi- 
cers and legislators who form her governing body does 
not amount to half as much as the Monarchy squan- 
ders upon one family which has neither public duties 
nor official responsiblity, and which sets an example of 
wasteful and showy living to the injury of the nation. 
One scarcely knows at which to wonder most, the fatuous 
folly of the people in permitting this great sum to go 
to one family, which is really one of the scandals of our 
age, or that any well educated family possessed of even 
ordinary sensibility can be found to take from a people, 
many of whom are sorely pressed for the necessaries 
of life, this enormous amount of their earnings and 
waste it upon their own mean and coarse extravagance. 
No fact more clearly proves the corrupting tendency of 
privilege or caste upon those unfortunately born under 
it. They must grow callous and unmindful of all but 
themselves. 

It will puzzle my American readers to imagine how 
such enormous sums can possibly be spent upon one 
family. Sir Charles Dilke has charged that public 
funds, not embraced in the preceding figures, are squan- 
dered to the amount of £\qo,Q£0 ($500,000) per annum 
upon yachts for Her Majesty's use, while, mark you, she 
has not been half a dozen times a year in a yacht dur- 
ing her entire reign. The sum spent ^by this model 
queen for useless pleasure-boats alone is greater than 



The National Balance Sheet. 467 

the American pays his President and Vice-President, 
the Cabinet officers, and all the Judges of the Supreme 
Court combined ! One marvels, when such abuses are 
revealed, that any member of the royal family is safe in 
open day. We should expect that public indignation 
would at least concentrate in one universal hiss. How 
long would Americans tolerate an abuse like this, think 
you ? *' Turn the rascals out," would again be the cry, 
and the delinquents would know better than to stay 
to be driven. The next Cunarder would have them 
booked, under assumed names, bound for happier climes. 
But the story does not stop here. This family finds in 
every marriage of their children a fresh plea for de- 
manding more money, and at every death they saddle 
the nation with the funeral expenses. The royal 
mother of her people cannot be induced to support 
her own children during life, or even to bury them 
decently at death, as long as the public can be further 
bled. All this is no reflection upon the royal family of 
England, for all other royal families do the same. They 
are as good a royal family as anywhere to be found. 
Certainly the queen is personally one of the best women 
who ever occupied a throne. It is the fault of the system 
that such callousness is bred in those who would other- 
wise be good people. The system, not its victims, is to 
blame. The royal family is only one of many evils 
with which monarchical institutions infest a State. The 
Fina7icial Reform Al7nanac states that within the last 



468 Trmmphant Democracy, 

thirty-three years the dukes, earls, and marquises, with 
their relatives, the inevitable brood of royalty, have 
taken from the exchequer more than i^66,ooo,ooo($330,- 
000,000), an average levy of two millions sterling, being 
as great as the entire sum spent by the government for 
the education of the people. John Bright told the peo- 
ple that the government was only a system of outdoor 
relief for the aristocracy, and he was right, as usual. It 
is well for the American people to get a glimpse now 
and then of the blots of other lands, that they may 
duly appreciate their own comparative purity. When- 
ever an American is met abroad with the assertion that 
government in the Republic is corrupt, he can safely 
say that for one ounce of corruption here, there is a 
full pound avoirdupois in Britain ; for every " job '* 
here, twenty yonder. Just look at some of the " jobs : " 
The Prince of Wales is colonel of this or that regi- 
ment, and draws salaries for duties he does not pretend 
to perform. He has many mean modes of drawing 
money from the public. He is made a field marshal ; 
one brother gets a high command in India ; the Duke 
of Edinburgh gets command of the Channel fleet ; the 
Duke of Cambridge, although commander-in-chief, does 
not scorn to draw a salary as Ranger of Richmond Park, 
and royal favorites by the score monopolize sinecure 
positions. One nobleman gej:s i^4,ooo ($20,000) per 
year for walking backward before her Majesty upon cer- 
tain occasions, and so on through a chapter of "jobs," 



The National Balance Sheet. 469 

so long and irritating that no American could patiently 
read through it. When the Democracy gets firmly in 
the saddle we shall see a change In all this, a purifying 
of the Augean stables of Monarchy. The corruption 
then exposed will surprise the republican. 

I do not believe that there could be found to-day a 
family whose head is in public life and honored by the 
Republic which would accept and use as the royal 
family accepts and uses the inordinate sums granted to 
them. The tendency of republicanism is to promote 
simplicity and a standard higher than that of showy 
living. President Cleveland in his inaugural message 
expresses the feelings of the people when he says : 

"We should never be ashamed of the simplicity and prudential 
economies which are best suited to the operation of a republican 
form of government and most compatible with the mission of the 
American people. Those who are selected for a limited time to 
manage public affairs are still of the people, and may do much by 
their example to encourage, consistently with the dignity of their 
official functions, that plain way of life which among their fellow- 
citizens aids integrity and promotes thrift and prosperity." 

The Monarchy thinks show grand ; the Republic 
votes it vulgar. 

To sum up all, the government of the people in 
eighteen years has reduced its debt at the average rate 
of $55,000,000 (;^ 1 1 ,000,000) per annum and the interest 
charge of its debt in that period to one-third its cost. 

It has abolished and reduced taxes from time to 



470 Trmmphant Democracy, 

time, until there remains of internal taxation only the 
taxes upon whiskey and tobacco stamps, etc. The in- 
come tax has gone with the others. Such a record the 
world has not seen before. 

The answer to doubters of the stability of Democ- 
racy, Hke Sir Henry Maine, is here : December, 1885, 
Republican three per cents., . . , 103I 
Monarchical three per cents., . . . 99!^ 

Were the consols of America perpetual like those 
of Britain, and not redeemable at a fixed date, their 
value would be still higher. The triumph of Democ- 
racy is palpable in many departments. In educa- 
tion, in population, in wealth, in agriculture and in 
manufactures, in annual savings, as we have seen, it 
stands first, but to the conservative mind surely the 
last domain in which the Democracy could be ex- 
pected to excel even Great Britain is that of credit. 
It has been the boast, one of the many proud boasts 
of the dear parent land, that her institutions were 
stable as the rock, as proved by her consols, which 
stood pre-eminent throughout the world. Now comes 
her republican child and plucks from her queenly head 
the golden round of public credit as hers of right and 
places it upon her own fair brow. It has been my priv- 
ilege to claim many victories for Triumphant Democ- 
racy but surely the world will join me in saying none is 
more surprising than this, that its public credit stands 
before that of Great Britain and first in all the world. 



CHAPTER XX. 

GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 

" The plain truth is, that educated Englishmen are slowly learning 
that the American Republic affords the best example of a conservative De- 
mocracy ; and now that England is becoming democratic, respectable 
Englishmen are beginning to consider whether the Constitution of the 
United States may not afford means by which, under new democratic 
forms, may be preserved the political conservatism dear and habitual to 
the governing classes of England." — Dicey. 

Politics are not the incessant theme in the Republic 
which they are in the Monarchy ; this difference has its 
rise in two causes : 

First. No party in America desires a change in any 
of the fundamental laws. If asked what important law 
I should change, I must perforce say none ; the laws are 
perfect. These being settled as desired by all, it follows 
that a vital question can arise but seldom. The *' outs " 
are left to insist that they could and would administer 
existing laws better or more purely than the *' ins." A 
politician may safely be challenged to state wherein 
the Democratic and Republican parties of to-day differ. 
If one of the *' outs " he will say that the " ins," having 
had control too long have become corrupt, and that, as 
a new broom sweeps clean, a change is desirable. But 
ask him which if any of the national laws or forms he 
would change, and he is dumb. 



472 Triumphant Democracy. 

Second. The nation having by universal suffrage 
and equal districts committed to certain men the man- 
agement of affairs for a short term, public sentiment 
says, let them have their innings and let us see how they 
succeed. We shall soon judge them by their fruits. 
They cannot be put out till their terms expire, therefore 
there is no sense in our becoming excited over politics 
until the time comes for an election. The party in 
opposition cannot be stirred to action when it is impos- 
sible for it to obtain power. Therefore the political ex- 
citement which always exists in Britain, breaks out in 
the Republic only once every four years. One hears 
more political discussion at a dinner in London than 
during the whole season in New York or Washing- 
ton. 

It is often charged that politics in the Republic are 
generally in the hands of men of position and character 
inferior to those of similar position in Britain. This 
is quite true. Until the final form of her political in- 
stitutions is reached in Britain, the important work to 
be done will attract able men. When the Civil War in 
America revealed the need for able men, America's best 
came forward and met the need. A notable change 
took place in the men who went to Washington. In 
the usual routine of national life in America the only 
political work to be done is such as young, briefless 
lawyers and unsuccessful men of affairs can easily per- 
form. They have to follow public opinion, and are 



General Reflections, 473 

mere agents. When great issues no longer divide the 
British people, the same result may be expected. Able 
men not influenced by personal vanity and desirous of 
leading lives of the greatest possible usefulness, will be 
unable to persuade themselves that attention to the ad- 
ministration of laws already fixed is the highest field, 
and will leave it to those of inferior nature or of less 
experience and ability. The highest ability and purest 
character, though lost to politics, will not, however, 
be lost to the nation, but really constitute, in a fuller 
sense, more vital parts of it, and enrich it more than 
they do now, when the final settlement of laws which is 
still to be made by the Democracy absorbs so much of 
their precious time. 

The difference between the House of Commons 
and its offshoot in Washington, which is productive 
of the most far-reaching effects, but which has hitherto 
received but little public attention in Britain, is the 
payment of its members. This difference is fundamen- 
tal. Pay members, and the people are then properly 
represented. Parliament is then the people's House. 
Refuse to pay members, and Parliament is primarily the 
House of the rich, and but imperfectly represents the 
masses. It is because this is the case that both Liberal 
and Conservative are found deprecating the payment 
of members, for it is still true that 

■■ "Triumphing Tories and despairing Whigs 

Forget their feuds to save their wigs." 



474 Triumphant Democracy. 

There are too many members of Parliament, both 
Liberal and Conservative, who owe their places to the 
fact that they can live without work to render any 
change easy. No other reason can be assigned against 
their payment, because members of the Cabinet and 
other great officers of State are paid as in America. 
Why should a Cabinet Minister receive a compensation 
and a Member none ? It will hardly be contended that 
an ordinary Member of Parliament would be disgraced, 
or his tone lowered, by accepting remuneration for his 
services as do Mr. Gladstone and the Marquis of Salis- 
bury. When the day arrives in which poor, but emi- 
nently capable, men can enter public life in Britain, 
there will be little left of aristocratic institutions. Un- 
til they can do so even the House of Commons is the 
house of the rich as the House of Lords is the house of 
the landlords. The people are represented by neither. 
In the Republic, as we have seen, every man serving 
the State is moderately compensated. But mark also 
this, no man is compelled to take it. Every one is free 
to serve the State gratuitously if he so desire. 

The immense advantage resulting from the periodi- 
cal election of officials is that they are less influenced 
by every passing wind of popular frenzy. They will 
more readily adopt a policy which their superior knowl- 
edge tells them will eventually produce good results, 
although at the moment excited popular opinion may 
be in opposition. They at least are firm and are able 



General Reflections. 475 

to steer steadily. They do not lose their official heads 
until their term of service ends. The Ministers and 
Members of Parliament in Great Britain are like so 
many agile performers on the tight rope ; no one knows 
the moment they may fall, nor worst of all the cause 
which may throw them. The nation kept in a state of 
unhealthy suspense from day to day cannot unreserv- 
edly do its best work, because all eyes are turned to 
these performers. There is every morning the chance 
of a grand spill and no one wants to miss it. The fatal 
defect of the British Constitution, since the power of 
the Throne has gone, is a weak executive liable to be 
swept along by any gust of opinion. It cannot await 
the return of sober reason for the calm and settled con- 
clusion of the people. It is the second and not the 
first will of the people which is the voice of God. As 
a consequence the members of the government do not 
hesitate to plead that they are not to be held responsi- 
ble for such and such acts because public opinion de- 
manded them ; as if they had not been designated by 
the people expressly to withstand popular excitement 
and to do not what was popular but what was best, re- 
gardless of clamor. Such an excuse would be held in 
the Republic to disgrace a government. 

The influence of this condition of affairs upon the 
politicians of Britain is bad in every respect. They 
are tempted to sacrifice so much in order to retain 
place, that instead of producing a body of men whose 



47^ Triumphant Democracy. 

first and last thought is for principle, the tendency is to 
produce men who are pliable to a degree, and ready to 
adopt any measures necessary to maintain their own 
party in power. We lately saw the Conservative Party 
passing Liberal measures rather than resign office, and 
a short time ago we saw the Liberal Party adopting 
Tory policy in the Soudan simply because they were 
afraid that if they did not they might lose office. The 
most adroit, and must we say it, least scrupulous party 
managers and not the truest statesmen are the likeliest 
to receive and to retain power. 

In these days when much is said against the dangers 
of Democracy, De Tocqueville's wise saying should be 
remembered : " Extreme democracy prevents the dan- 
gers of democracy." Not only is the Republic, with its 
fixed terms of office, its Supreme Court, and two cham- 
bers with real power a much more conservative form 
of government than the monarchy, since the power 
passed from the aristocratic few into the masses, but 
the people themselves have become, under republi- 
can institutions, a much more conservative people in 
their political institutions than their progenitors — con- 
servative in the sense that they desire no change. The 
national Constitution illustrates this. Since its adop- 
tion in 1787, it has only been twice amended, and for 
many years there has not been one word added or 
erased, and the recent amendments made have resulted 
solely from new questions created by the overthrow of 



General Reflections, 477 

slavery — on no other point has a word been changed. 
On the other hand, the British Constitution has been 
so tampered with from time to time as to become 
almost unrecognizable as its former self. Well may 
Tennyson write (I honor him by omitting " My Lord "): 

"As to any 'vital' changes in our Constitution — I could 
wish that some of our prominent politicians, who look to America 
as their ideal, might borrow from her an equivalent to that con- 
servatively restrictive provision under the Fifth Article of her Con- 
stitution. I believe that it would be a great safeguard to our own 
in these days of ignorant and reckless theorists." 

Theories of the power of the people obtain in 
Britain which are unthought of in America. Such an 
Act as the recent Irish Land Bill, which took from the 
owners of property the right to let it in open market 
and enjoy the resulting revenues, would not find a party 
to advocate it, much less a House of Representatives to 
entertain it ; and, even if passed by both Houses and ap- 
proved by the President, the Supreme Court would be 
bound to make it void, for a change of the Constitution 
would be necessary to render such an act legitimate. 
Property ! property ! property ! has been the cry of the 
owning and governing classes of the Monarchy, yet the 
sacred rights of property are to-day much more secure- 
ly guarded by the Democracy of the Republic than they 
can possibly be in the Monarchy. The capitalist and 
property owner is more secure in the enjoyment of his 
property in the new than in the old country. In land, 



47^ Triumphant Democracy, 

for instance, he has most citizens sustaining him in his 
right, for the millions own the soil in small parcels. Prop- 
erty in land stands, and always has stood, upon the 
same footing as any other kind of property. Therefore 
land proprietorship has not been rendered odious by 
unfair advantages conferred upon it. Its sale is free ; 
and it is taxed upon its value as other property is. It 
can be taken at a valuation for railways or other public 
purposes. There is neither primogeniture nor entail. 
The free play of the law of dispersion has been found 
quite sufficient to prevent the troubles which afflict 
Britain in its management of the soil. When land is 
free and subject only to the general laws regarding 
property, its owners will rest in peaceful possession, 
but never till then. 

The cable informs us that in Mr. Gladstone's plan 
for home rule special means are to be taken to prevent 
unjust laws being enacted by the majority in Ireland 
against the landlords ; and even so philosophic a man 
as my friend, Mr. Morley, is said to second the idea. 
With all due respect to these great men, I beg to point 
out that no surer means of making landlords more 
odious if possible than at present ever entered the 
human brain. It betrays a positive lack of knowledge 
of human nature. Give exceptional security or pro- 
tection or privilege to any class, and it becomes at once 
a target for the bitter hostility of all other classes. 
Should unusual guarantees be provided, I venture to 



General Reflections, 479 

predict that instead of healing existing sores, these 
measures will become the seeds of graver ills to follow. 
Only what is equal rests in repose, and produces good 
fruit. There cannot be repose, i. e. equilibrium, with- 
out equality of the parts. 

We see the question of a graduated income tax 
coming to the front in the Monarchy. The Republic 
had this when immense sums were required to meet the 
cost of the Civil War, but one of the first taxes aban- 
doned at the close of the struggle was the income tax. 
It was not reduced or made uniform, it was abolished ; 
nor has there ever been a movement to re-impose it. 
The masses favored its abolition although it was paid 
by the fev/, for all incomes below $2,000 (^^400) per 
annum v/ere exempt. I know of no temptation ever 
placed before a Democracy, to put the burden of the 
State upon the shoulders of the few rich citizens, as 
was contained in the suggestion not to inaugurate a new, 
but only to resist the repeal of this existing tax. They 
approved its repeal because it was shown that although 
theoretically the justest of all modes of taxation, in 
practice the honest citizen paid it and the dishonest 
escaped, and that to enforce its honest collection a 
thorough system of espionage and minute examination 
Vv^ould be required not in harmony with the spirit of 
free institutions. The republican is jealous to a degree 
of the presence of a Government official armed with 
power to trouble him about anything. 



480 Triwmphant Democracy, 

Since the Republic adopted the Civil Service Reform, 
it can no longer be charged that at every change of 
administration the petty officials lose their places, 
which never was the case to the extent popularly be- 
lieved in Britain, for the staff were necessarily retained. 
I know of no remaining charge against the Democracy 
except international copyright and the alleged corrup- 
tion of local politics. As before explained, the " outs " 
must accuse the " ins " of corruption, since the policy 
of the one party is that of the other. There is rarely 
any other reason for a change to be alleged, but, as Mat- 
thew Arnold very justly observes, charges of personal 
corruption in America take the place of personal abuse 
in Britain, Salisbury being a " liar " and Gladstone a 
** madman " as these gentlemen are held to be respec- 
tively by their most violent opponents. 

The question arises, if American officials — politicians, 
I should say, for the officers of the courts and the army 
and navy are beyond suspicion — if these be venal, 
where are those who have made fortunes by politics? 
I have known many hundreds of public men, but 
scarcely ever one who was not actually poor. When the 
tenure of office is short, and the chance is great that 
one of the opposite party will succeed and overhaul all 
accounts, malfeasance in office must be rare. So it is. 
Very few defalcations occur. In the case of legislators, 
who may be bribed to vote for measures, it is to be 
noted that but little private bill legislation is known. 



General Reflections, 481 

A general railway law In the States, and general laws 
by which questions are decided, leave but little room 
for personal aggrandizement. By this means legisla- 
tion throughout the country is kept substantially pure. 
Comparing the National Legislature at Washington 
with the British Parliament, I am persuaded that 
at least as many votes are given from other consid- 
erations than those of honest conviction in the lat- 
ter as in the former. True, the bribe is not the same 
in both cases ; pecuniary considerations have less 
weight in the older land, but there is no radical differ- 
ence whether members' votes are obtained by expected 
social rank or favor, or expected pecuniary gain. A 
longed-for title, even so poor a one as that of baronet, 
is not less a bribe than so many dollars. The nature 
reached by the dollar may be the lower man of the 
two, but he is at least not quite so silly. There is more 
sense in dollars than in titles — " patents of nobility " — 
at which the judicious laugh behind the wearer's back, 
whispering to each other : " Pity the weakness of a poor 
old man." Viewed thus broadly, there is as much cor- 
ruption in politics in the mother as in the child land, 
only its form varies to suit the taste of its victims. 

The trouble with the Liberal Party in Britain is that 
it leaks at the top; no sooner does a commoner do good 
work in Parliament and acquire a position as a Liberal 
member, than he gets a bee in his bonnet. He or his 

wife and family longs to leave the ranks of the people 
31 



482 Triumphant Democracy, 

and receive a title. I know several worthy men who have 
deliberately sacrificed their proud position as English 
gentlemen, which is equal to any, to enter the ranks of 
aristocracy at the very lowest round of the ladder, 
some of them not even upon the ladder at all. By so 
doing they necessarily admit the idea of rank, and con- 
fess themselves the inferiors of all the other degrees of 
the class. These men insult the people from which 
they sprung by leaving them for the aristocracy. By 
accepting rank the newly made baronet gives an implied 
pledge that his earnest Liberalism is at an end. He is 
simply bribed, and henceforth is a muzzled dog. If 
not, he is a traitor not only to his own class, but to the 
aristocracy he seeks to enter upon false pretences. By 
this sad aberration the Liberal Party is constantly 
denuded of its able men. A man born in the aris- 
tocracy may be respected, a commoner who accepts a 
new title rarely is, although he may be excused. The 
query of the old Duke, although not upon everybody's 
lips, is in everybody's thoughts: "How shall I treat 
these new men ? They are not noblemen, and they 
have ceased to be gentlemen." Not until the Liberal is 
far too proud of his manhood to place himself beneath 
any order whatever, will the Liberal Party hold assured 
sway, or even very greatly deserve to do so. 

The republican member could not be paid to change 
his name. The monarchist will generally pay largely 
in service for the ornamental appendage. The one is 



General Reflections, 483 

entirely free from all temptations to sacrifice conviction 
for social position, for this no government or official 
can influence in the slightest degree. The other must 
be possessed of rare independence indeed to escape the 
corrupting social influences which radiate from mon- 
archical institutions. 

If we compare the Senate with the House of Lords 
the most prejudiced mind must surely grant the palm 
to the republican assembly, for such a spectacle as a 
body constituting the land-holding class, so completely 
as to be justly called the House of Landlords, legisla- 
ting upon land in its own interest, is not seen else- 
v/here. It is not a rare act for a member of the 
House in Washington to rise and beg to be excused 
from voting, because his personal interests are affected 
by a bill. Several presidents of national banks have 
done so when financial questions v/ere being voted 
upon. We do not recall the nam.e of any member of 
the lords who has refrained from voting upon meas- 
ures connected with the land. Even the bishops in that 
assembly may confidently be expected to vote against 
their coming expulsion instead of asking to be excused 
to act as public legislators to promote personal ends. 

I have spoken strongly of the Supreme Court, and 
of the courts in general of the nation. The judiciary of 
the United States is pure and able, and possesses the 
confidence of the people to a degree equal to that 
justly reposed by the British people in their judiciary. 



484 • Triumphant Democracy, 

Thirty years ago a few foreign-born citizens, known 
as the Tweed Ring, succeeded in casting such reproach 
upon two of the city judges of New York, as in the 
eyes of foreigners to envelop the entire judiciary of 
the country in a haze of suspicion, and at a later 
date, a disreputable railway owner, long since dead, 
corrupted another city judge. Even to this day, I find 
lingering traces of the bad effects of this in Britain. It 
is necessary to explain to them that New York city 
being then really controlled by the foreign-born vote, 
it was sometimes easy to elect as city judges very un- 
suitable material. These, however, it must be noted, 
were only city magistrates, their decisions being sub- 
ject to appeal to higher courts. The discovery of this 
corrupt ring led to prompt corrections. The leader 
was required to surrender his property, imprisoned in 
the penitentiary and died there. Others fled abroad 
and lived in hiding. Had the people failed to rise and 
throw party considerations to the winds and sweep 
away the disgrace, we should indeed have reason to 
doubt the wisdom of popular institutions; on the con- 
trary they rose en inasse, and, incensed beyond measure, 
swept the rascals from place. Since then the city gov- 
ernment has been comparatively pure. 

Using the fact that three city magistrates in this 
foreign city of New York had become the tools of a 
corrupt ring as a foundation for general charges, I have 
heard people announce that in America the courts were 



General Reflections, 485 

not pure. This has no greater foundation than what I 
have stated. A moment's reflection will convince one 
that it would have been impossible for the commercial 
and manufacturing interests of the nation to develop so 
enormously were there not in every State pure and in- 
corruptible tribunals to render justice between man and 
man. The truth is, that in settled parts of the Repub- 
lic courts of justice are quite as pure as those in corre- 
sponding situations in Britain, and justice is much more 
cheaply and more expeditiously administered. In the 
semi-civilized Territories of the West, v/here society is 
beginning to crystallize, there are, of course, all kinds 
of courts, from the rude but generally strictly just vigi- 
lance committee to the improvised judge, who sits upon 
the plain pine board bench in his shirt sleeves, and 
has not the strictest ideas of either judicial dignity or 
integrity. It is of this kind of court that the story is 
told of the trial of a man charged with the most hei- 
nous of all crimes there — the stealing of a horse, the 
murder of a man in a street row being insignificant in 
comparison. The judge asked him if before sentence of 
death were pronounced he had anything to offer to the 
Court. ^'Wall, Judge," said he, "I haven't much, but 
if a hundred dollars would see me through, I think the 
boys" (looking appealingly around) ''would raise it for 
me ; " and they would have done so, no doubt, had the 
judge's words been meant as the prisoner construed them. 
In due time all this v/ill pass away, and the courts 



486 Triumphant Democracy, 

now in the wilds of Dakota or Montana will develop 
into tribunals as free from suspicion as those which else- 
where grace the settled districts. If a man, knowing 
both countries well, had, unfortunately, to seek justice 
through the courts, he would certainly elect to bring 
his action upon this side of the Atlantic. The verdict 
would be much more promptly rendered and the cost 
much less. In neither land, I make bold to say, v/ould 
there arise in his mind the faintest suspicion of the 
honor of the judges who weighed and decided his cause 
according to the law and the evidence, and this, I sub- 
mit, is much to say for both branches of the English- 
speaking race. 

Throughout this book my readers will have noted 
how frequently reference is made to the conservative 
nature of the political institutions of the Republic, and 
to the resulting trait of deep and abiding indisposition 
upon the part of the people to enter upon novel meas- 
ures or untried fields of legislation. Lord Salisbury's 
sagacious mind has evidently been struck v/ith all this. 
The close and critical study of the Constitution, and 
the various branches of the American Government, 
which it has been necessary for me to undertake in the 
preparation of this book, has not shown me v/hat 
I did not know before, but I feel bound to say that, 
in a much fuller and clearer light, the conservative 
character of these have been presented to me, and per 
contra that the essentially democratic structure of the 



General Reflections, 487 

British Constitution, with which I have naturally com- 
pared the former in my progress, has been shown to me 
in a remarkable degree. The political power of the 
non-elective monarch being of the past, although the 
social power is demoralizing upon the character of the 
people in every aspect of its operation, we are face to 
face with a government without fixity of tenure, and 
consequently without power as against popular tumult, 
exposed to every passion of the populace. As long as 
the populace did not elect the Members of Parliament, 
these were not compelled to give way to their tempo- 
rary moods, but now, when manhood suffrage practically 
exists, these members are the servants of the masses, 
and will conform to their every whim. As a stanch 
republican with infinite confidence in the voice of the 
people, one who advocates the election of judges by uni- 
versal suffrage, and who knows no civil rights which 
he is not perfectly willing to subject to the will of the 
majority, I warn the people of Britain that the masses 
are prone to be carried away temporarily by passion, 
and that it may be found necessary to interpose some 
shield between the sudden, fierce outburst of an ex- 
cited population, and the officials subjected to the strain, 
not to thwart the sober judgment of the people, but to 
give it time to judge. This the Republic has in the 
fact that its executive and legislative officials are not 
subject to removal by the popular voice. They serve 
their appointed term, and they submit for approval or 



488 Triumphant Democracy, 

disapproval the results to their masters. With fixity 
of tenure in office, a Senate of which only one-third is 
changeable each two years, and a Supreme Court com- 
posed of judges approved by the Senate, and holding 
office for life, and retiring upon a pension, by whom all 
legislative acts are subject to be approved or rendered 
nugatory, our conservative friends will have no diffi- 
culty in reaching the conclusion that so far as security 
and sound government go, they have strangely missed 
the truth that the most democratic and ultra-republican 
community upon earth is much to be envied by the un- 
fortunate supporters of an antiquated monarchical sys- 
tem which new conditions have robbed of all its virtues, 
leaving behind only forms bereft of power, to prevent 
liberty from degenerating into license, popular tumult 
from overthrowing governments, or to prevent the 
peaceful enjoyment of property from being ruthlessly 
disturbed. I speak thus earnestly because I was a sad 
witness from an advantageous stand-point of the su- 
preme weakness of the government in regard to the 
late Egyptian War, and especially of its virtual abdica- 
tion of authority in committing to a man wholly un- 
suited to perform delicate tasks, the issue of peace or 
war in the Soudan, not because he was, in the judg- 
ment of the Cabinet, the best agent, but because a 
whiff of manufactured popular opinion seemed for a 
moment to demand the appointment. In like manner 
responsibility for the Soudan has been disclaimed be- 



General Reflections, 489 

cause the popular opinion demanded it. I speak thus, 
not of any one government or another, Liberal or Con- 
servative. The evil is in the system. In the Republic 
no similar vv^eakness is discernible. The government 
is secure and can consequently afford to do not what is 
popular at the moment, but that which will, from its 
good results, become popular by and by. Some of my 
Radical friends may esteem this strange doctrine for a 
republican to preach, but such are yet to learn that 
the equality of the citizen in a State is the surest anti- 
dote for violent revolutionary measures, and brings 
about, in many ways, deep and universal solicitude for 
calm, orderly administration. The privileges enjoyed 
by the masses are, in their estimation, far too precious 
to be disturbed. The Republic has seldom elected a 
popular orator, and never elected a public agitator as 
President. Believe me, the masses are only revolution- 
ary when deprived of equality. 

Here is the record of one century's harvest of De- 
mocracy : 

1. The majority of the English-speaking race under 
one republican flag, at peace. 

2. The nation which is pledged by act of both par- 
ties to offer amicable arbitration for the settlement of 
international disputes. 

3. The nation which contains the smallest propor- 
tion ©f illiterates, the largest proportion of those who 
read and write. 



490 Triuinpha7it Democracy. 

4. The nation which spends least on war, and most 
upon education ; which has the smallest army and navy, 
in proportion to its population and wealth, of any mar- 
itime power in the world. 

5. The nation which provides most generously dur- 
ing their lives for every soldier and sailor injured in its 
cause, and for their widows and orphans. 

6. The nation in which the rights of the minority 
and of property are most secure. 

7. The nation whose flag, wherever it floats over 
sea and land, is the symbol and guarantor of the equal- 
ity of the citizen. 

8. The nation in whose Constitution no man sug- 
gests improvement ; whose laws as they stand are satis- 
factory to all citizens. 

9. The nation which has the ideal Second Chamber, 
the most august assembly in the world — the American 
Senate. 

10. The nation whose Supreme Court is the envy of 
the ex-Prime Minister of the parent land. 

11. The nation whose Constitution is '' the most per- 
fect piece of work ever struck off at one time by the 
mind and purpose of man," according to the present 
Prime Minister of the parent land. 

12. The nation most profoundly conservative of what 
is good, yet based upon the political equality of the 
citizen. • 

13. The wealthiest nation in the world. 



General Reflections, 491 

I4« The nation first in public credit, and in payment 
of debt. 

15. The greatest agricultural nation in the world. 

16. The greatest manufacturing nation in the world. 

17. The greatest mining nation in the world. 
Many of these laurels have hitherto adorned the 

brow of Britain, but her child has wrested them from 
her. The precocious youth may be tempted to para- 
phrase Prince Henry's boast to his father, and say 
to the world, 

" England is but my factor, good my lord, 
To engross up glorious deeds on my behalf, 
And I will call her to so strict account 
That she shall render every glory up.'' 

But please do not be so presumptuous, my tri- 
umphant republican, I do not believe the people oi 
Britain can be beaten in the paths of peaceful triumphs 
even by their precocious child. Just wait till you 
measure yourself with them after they are equally well 
equipped. There are signs that the masses are about to 
burst their bonds and be free men. The British race, all 
equal citizens from birth, will be a very different antag- 
onist to the semi-serfs you have so far easily excelled. 
Look about you and note that transplanted here and 
enjoying for a few years similar conditions to yours the 
Briton does not fail to hold his own and keep abreast 
of you in the race. Nor do his children fail either to 



492 Triumphant Democracy. 

come to the front. Assuredly the stuff is in these 
Island mastiffs. It is only improper training and lack 
of suitable stimulating nourishment to which their 
statesmen have subjected them, that renders them 
feeble. The strain is all right, and the training will 
soon be all right too. 

Much has been written upon the relations existing 
betv/een Old England and New England. It is with 
deep gratefulness that I can state that never in my 
day was the regard, the reverence of the child land 
for the parent land so warm, so sincere, so heart- 
felt. This was inevitable whenever the pangs of sepa- 
ration ceased to hurt, and the more recent wounds 
excited by the unfortunate position taken by the 
Mother during the slave-holders' rebellion were duly 
healed. It was inevitable as soon as the American 
mind became acquainted with the past history of the 
race from which he had sprung, and learned the total 
sum of that great debt which he owed to his progenitor. 
It is most gratifying to see that the admiration, the love 
of the American for Britain is in exact proportion to 
his knowledge and power. It is not the uncultivated 
man of the gulch who returns from a visit to the old 
home filled with pride of ancestry, and duly grateful to 
the pioneer land which in its bloody march toward 
civil and religious liberty 

*' Through the long gorge to the far light hath won 
Its path upward and prevailed." 



General Reflections. 493 

It is the Washington Irvings, the Nathaniel Haw- 
thornes, the Russell Lowells, the Adamses, the Dudley 
Warners, the Wentworth Higginsons, the Edward 
Atkinsons — the men of whom we are proudest at home. 
Thus, in order that the republican may love Britain it 
is only necessary that he should know her. As this 
knowledge is yearly becoming more general, affection 
spreads and deepens. 

So much for the younger land's share of the ques- 
tion. 

And now, what are wx to testify as to the feelings 
of the older land toward its forward child ? My ex- 
perience in this matter covers twenty years, 'in few of 
which I have failed to visit my native land. I had a 
hard time of it for the first years, and often had occa- 
sion to say to myself, and not a few times to intimate 
to others, that *' it was prodigious what these English 
did not know." I fought the cause of the Union year 
after year during the Rebellion. Only a few of the John 
Bright class among prominent men, ever and ever our 
staunchest friends, believed, what I often repeated, that 
" there was not enough of air on the North American 
continent to float two flags," and that the Democracy 
was firm and true. When the end came, and one flag 
was all the air did float, these doubters declared that 
the immense armies would never disband and retire to 
the peaceful avocations of life. How little these 
ignorant people knew of the men who fought for their 



494 Triumphant Democracy, 

country! They were soon surprised upon this point. 
I had to combat upon subsequent visits the general 
behef in financial circles that it was absurd to hope 
that a government of the masses would ever think 
of paying the national debt. It would be repudiated, 
of course. That danger passed, like the first. Then 
followed prophecies that the " greenback dodge " would 
be sanctioned by the people. That passed too. But 
well do I remember the difference with which I was 
received and listened to after these questions had been 
safely passed and the Republic had emerged from the 
struggle, a nation about to assume the front rank among 
those who had disparaged her. 

I fear the governing classes at home never thor- 
oughly respected the Republic, and hence could not 
respect its citizens, until it had shown not only its 
ability to overwhelm its own enemy, but to turn round 
upon France, and with a word drive the monarchical 
idea out of Mexico. And then it will be remembered 
that it called to account its ov/n dear parent, who in 
her official capacity had acted abominably when her 
own child was in a death struggle with slavery, and 
asked her to please settle for the injury she had in- 
flicted. This was for a time quite a staggering piece of 
presumption in the estimation of the haughty old mon- 
archy, but, nevertheless, it was all settled by an act 
which marks an epoch in the history of the race, and 
gives to the two divisions of the Anglo-Saxon the 



General Reflections, 495 

proud position of having set the best example of the 
settlement of " international disputes by peaceful arbi- 
tration " which the world has yet seen. From this 
time forth it became extremely difficult for the privi- 
leged classes of Britain to hold up the Republic to the 
people as a mournful example of the folly of attempt- 
ing to build up a State without privileged classes. 
Their hitherto broad charges now necessarily took on 
the phase of carping criticism. 

America had not civil service ; it turned out all its 
officials at the beginning of every administration. 
Well, America got civil service, and that subject was at 
an end. Then the best people did not enter into politi- 
cal life, and American politicians were corrupt; but the 
explanation of the first part of the charge, which is 
quite true as a general proposition, is, as I have shown, 
that where the laws of a country are perfect in the 
opinion of a people, and all is going on about to their 
liking, able and earnest men believe they can serve 
their fellow-men better in m^ore useful fields than poli- 
tics, which, after all, are but means to an end. *^ Oh, 
how dreadful, don't you know," said a young would-be 
swell to a young American lady — " how dreadful, you 
know, to be governed by people you would not visit, 
you knov/." " Probably," was the reply, "and how de- 
lightful, don't you know, to be governed by people 
who wouldn't visit you." All of the indictments 
against the Republic have about disappeared except 



496 Triumphant Democracy, 

one, and that will soon go as the cause is understood, 
for international copyright must soon be settled. 

During the period covered by this sketch of my ex- 
perience, Britons have begun to read and hear more 
and more about the Republic, and, I am happy to say, 
to run over and see for themselves what the main 
division of the race is about. The former visitor in- 
variably made the mistake of taking the semi-English 
semi-foreign New York city for the country. He had 
seen most of what v/as to be seen if he had spent a 
week or two here. So he thought ; but the really able 
Britons like Morley, Huxley, Froude, Freeman, Farrar, 
Irving, Rosebery, Bell, Richards, Pidgeon, Salt, Rogers, 
Seeley, Bryce, Spencer, Arnold and others, who are all 
personages at home, and many of them personages any- 
where, this class knows that until the Alleghany Moun- 
tains are crossed the real native is rarely to be met with. 
And certainly not unless the visitor has access to the 
homes of those who figure little or none in political life, 
can he see the best people of the land, or understand 
the foundation of personal worth upon which the State 
mainly rests. All this, these good friends of ours know 
quite well, and, upon the whole, I think the Americans 
may be quite satisfied with the impression they have 
made upon this class of British visitors. Their reports 
about America — as far as I have heard them, direct or 
from those to whom they have been spoken — have ever 
been flattering, so that to-day I beheve the affection 



General Reflections. 497 

with which the republican regards the old land is in a 
fair way to be reciprocated. 

When the example of a nation is quoted by the 
leading men of another in grave crises as the best 
means of rousing their own people to creditable action, 
we may safely infer that its position in their esteem is 
at least secure. The instances in which the Republic is 
now-a-days called upon to serve as the inspirer of the 
old land are too numerous to mention, but only last 
evening I read a speech, made by Mr. Chamberlain, 
who is certainly nearer to the Premiership of Britain 
than any one except Mr. Gladstone, from. which I ex- 
tract the following : 

•' To preserve the Union the Northern States of America poured 
out their blood and treasure Hke water, and fought and won the 
contest of our time; and if Englishmen still possess the courage and 
stubborn determination which were so lately the ancient charac- 
teristics of the race, and which were so conspicuous in the great 
American contest, we shall allow no temptation and no threat to 
check our resolution to maintain unimpaired the effective union of 
the three kingdoms that owe allegiance to the present sovereign.'' 

Note the IF, my fellow-citizens. " If Englishmen 
still possess the courage and stubborn determination 
which were so conspicuous in the great American con- 
test !" Americans have been praised for their energy, 
their devotion to education, and to religion, their in- 
ventiveness, their resolute payment of debt, and for 

other qualities, but who could have believed that a 
32 



498 Triumphant Democracy, 

leading statesman of Britain would cite their high cour- 
age and stubbornness to the old bull-dog race of Britons. 
Mr. Chamberlain, however, in my opinion, does the 
original race injustice. Men decreed by the laws of a 
State unworthy at birth to be equal citizens thereof, 
have no reason to fight very hard and sacrifice much 
for its maintenance. Give them the rights of the 
American, my dear Mr. Chamberlain, and you Vv^ill then 
see in Britain what patriotism means. There is not yet 
in Britain a government ^Z the people but a government 
and a people. Government is always thought of by the 
masses as something not of, but apart and above, them- 
selves. Americans may not be able to understand this, 
but it is quite natural in a country where government 
is based upon the idea that its head springs from a 
higher source than the voice of the people and is beyond 
their control, descending from parent to child by right 
of birth. Yet so advanced a man as Mr. Chamberlain, 
it will be observed, speaks of the three kingdoms which 
owe allegiance to the sovereign. He does not seem to 
realize that just as long as the people owe allegiance to 
anybody but themselves, so long will he look in vain to 
his countrymen for the love and devotion to their coun- 
try which is found in the breasts of Am.ericans for theirs. 
They have not equal reason to love the land which gave 
them birth. The Republic honors her children at birth 
with equality ; the Monarchy stamps hers with the 
brand of inferiority. 



General Reflections, 499 

The following from the most powerful Liberal organ 
in Britain, the vS/'^c/^/^r (December 26, 1885), also in- 
vokes the action of the Republic as an example for the 
original race. 

" Democracy ought to be strongest of all in its insistency that 
properly represented parts of the body corporate shall not set the 
body corporate at defiance and set up for themselves. It was found 
equal to this strength of purpose in the United States, and we trust 
that it will be found equal to it in the United Kingdom. The trial 
was severe, and the conflict was long ; but the tenacity of the 
Democracy triumphed at last. We believe that it will be so with 
us. If we show indecision, if we show weakness, if we show that 
the spirit of determination to put down the Secessionist tendencies 
of the day is not high within us, we shall undoubtedly be giving the 
first serious signal of national decay. We do not believe that it will 
be so. We believe that Great Britain, directly the situation comes 
out clearly before her, will nerve herself to as strenuous a policy 
as that which secured the integrity of the American nation in the 
great crisis of 1861." 

Democracy was found equal in the United States and 
wc trust it will be found equal in the United Kingdom ! 
The Democracy triumphed and we believe it will be so 
with us ; we BELIEVE that Great Britain will " nerve her- 
self to as strenuous a policy as that which secured the in- 
tegrity of the American nation in the great crisis of 1 86i ) *' 

If the old land, you see, only comes up to the 
standard set by the new, it is all that is even hoped for, 
but under monarchical institutions it is impossible they 
can ever reach the standard. 



500 Triumphant Democracy, 

Monarchical institutions emasculate even educated 
men, and the ignorant masses in greater degree. There 
is probably not a man of the rank of Cabinet Minister 
in Britain, no not one, but would have bowed, and 
that low and repeatedly, if desired, to Gesler's cap, 
and smiled to think he had done himself no injury by 
so doing, since it was not a " practical question." Of 
course men can kiss the hand of the Queen, as one 
is proud to kiss the hand of any good woman, but 
how will it be when the Prince of Wales holds out his 
hand, and Messrs. Chamberlain and Morley, Collings 
and Illingworth, Trevelyan and Fowler, and others are 
required to kiss that ! I am not sure but that even 
these Radicals may find it no stain upon their man- 
hood to incur this degradation, but the first man who 
feels as he ought to feel, will either smile when the 
hand is extended at the suggestion that he could so de- 
mean himself, and give it a good hearty shake, or knock 
his Royal Highness down. I have heard of ladies of 
high rank who say they never would kiss the Prince's 
hand, but they need not trouble themselves upon this 
score, for the Prince will make himself immensely popu- 
lar by reversing the process and kissing their hands in- 
stead. He is a gallant gentleman. It is not the man 
we declaim against but the effect of the customs, fit 
only for serfs, by which monarchy is surrounded, and 
which tend to keep men — even Radicals — subservient. 

The masses of Britain always have been, and are 



General Reflections, 501 

now with the Republic to the core. Their warmest 
sympathies and intensest admiration are bestowed upon 
the Republic. This sentiment has already reached the 
educated Liberals ; the more pronounced the liberal- 
ism, the more affectionately is the freer land regarded. 
The position of the country and its recent amazing 
strides, the peace and content which everywhere pre- 
vail, and, beyond all, the regard for law and order and 
for the rights of property, the unmistakable conserv- 
atism of the American people upon which I have 
dwelt, are fast making a decided impression upon the 
hitherto timid and misbelieving but educated people of 
the Conservative party. They cannot quite account 
for it, and are not yet open to the truth that political 
institutions, which make all citizens equal, necessarily 
produce the virtues which I have recounted ; but as no 
other explanation is seemingly possible, we may soon 
expect them to advance to its admission. Tory De- 
mocracy may not, then, be an apparent misnomer, after 
all. 

I should like Americans to observe how rapidly the 
thinkers of Europe are discovering the merits of their 
institutions and example. Several of Britain's foremost 
men have recently visited the country. The historian 
Freeman came first. Listen to what he says : 

" Your Constitution above all has gone through the most fright- 
ful of trials, and it has stood the test. I remember twenty years 
ago how shallow people were crying out that the principle of a 



502 TriMmphant Democracy, 

federal system was proved to be worthless because certain mem- 
bers of a particular confederation wished to separate from it. I 
can only suppose that they fancied that no revolts, no separations, . 
no dismemberments, had ever taken place in lands governed by 
kings. The retort is so obvious that I need hardly point out that 
the recent experience of Greece, of Belgium, of Poland, of Lom- 
bardy, of Sicily, of half-a-dozen European lands, proved at least as 
much against monarchy as the secession of the Southern States 
proved against federalism. At all events, they did not stop to 
think that, after all, they were only backing up one federal com- 
monwealth against another. They must have shut their eyes to 
the fact that the Southern Confederacy, in its short-lived constitu- 
tion, re-enacted all the essential features of the Constitution of the 
United States. The fact is one which I should turn about in 
another way. I can conceive no more speaking tribute to the 
wisdom of any political system than the fact that the men who 
were most dissatisfied with its actual administration, the men 
who were most anxious to escape from its actual fellowship, of 
set purpose re-enacted its chief provisions for their own separate 
use.'' 

Mr. Freeman was followed by their foremost literary 
man, Mr. Matthew Arnold. Here is his conclusion : 

" As one watches the play of their [the Americans'] institu- 
tions, the image suggests itself to one's mind of a man in a suit 
of clothes which fits him to perfection, leaving all his movements 
unimpeded and easy. It is loose where it ought to be loose, and 
it sits close where its sitting close is an advantage. The central 
Government of the United States keeps in its own hands those 
functions which, if the nation is to have real unity, ought to be 
kept there ; those functions it takes to itself and no others. The 
State governments and the municipal governments provide people 



General Reflections, 503 

with the fullest liberty of managing their own affairs, and afford, 
besides, a constant and invaluable school of practical experience. 
This wonderful suit of clothes, again (to recur to our image), is 
found also to adapt itself naturally to the wearer's growth and to 
admit of all enlargements as they successively arise." 

The third of the trio is the historian Mr. Froude, 
and here is his verdict : 

"The problem of how to combine a number of self-governed 
communities into a single commonwealth, which now lies before 
Englishmen who desire to see a federation of the empire, has been 
solved, and solved completely, in the American Union. Tne bond 
which, at the Declaration of Independence, was looser than that 
which now connects Australia and England, became strengthened 
by time and custom. The attempt to break it was successfully re- 
sisted by the sword, and the American Republic is, and is to con- 
tinue so far as reasonable foresight can anticipate, one and hence- 
forth indissoluble. 

" Each State is free to manage its own private affairs, to legis- 
late for itself, subject to the fundamental laws of the Union, and to 
administer its own internal government, with this reservation only 
— that separation is not to be thought of. The right to separate 
was settled once for all by a civil war which startled the world by 
its magnitude, but which, terrible though it might be, was not dis- 
proportioned to the issues which were involved. Had the South 
succeeded in winning independence, the cloth once rent would 
have been rent again. There would not have been one America, 
but many Americas. The New World would have trodden over 
again in the tracks of the old. There would have been rival com- 
munities with rival constitutions, democracies passing into military 
despotisms, standing armies, intrigues and quarrels, and wars 
upon wars. The completeness with which the issue has been ac- 



504 Triumphant Democracy, 

cepted shows that the Americans understood the alternative that 
lay before them. That the wound so easily healed was a proof that 
they had looked the alternative in the face, and were satisfied with 
the verdict which had been pronounced. 

" And well may they be satisfied. The dimensions and value 
of any single man depends on the body of which he is a member. 
As an individual, with his horizon bounded by his personal inter- 
ests, he remains, however high his gifts, but a mean creature. His 
thoughts are small, his aims narrow ; he has no common concerns 
or common convictions which bind him to his fellows. He lives, 
he works, he wins a share — small or great — of the necessaries or 
luxuries which circumstances throw within his reach, and then he 
dies and there is an end of him. A man, on the other hand, who 
is more than himself, who is part of an institution, who has devoted 
himself to a cause — or is a citizen of an imperial power — expands to 
the scope and fulness of the larger organism ; and the grander the 
organization, the larger and more important the unit that knows 
that he belongs to it. His thoughts are wider, his interests less 
selfish, his ambitions ampler and nobler. As a granite block is to 
the atoms of which it is composed when disintegrated, so are men 
in organic combination to the same men only aggregated together. 
Each particle contracts new qualities which are created by the 
intimacy of union. Individual Jesuits are no more than other 
mortals. The Jesuits as a society are not mortal at all, and rule 
the Catholic world.- Behind each American citizen America is 
standing, and he knows it, and is the man that he is because he 
knows it. The Anglo-Americans divided m.ight have fared no 
better than the Spanish colonies. The Anglo-Americans united 
command the respectful fear of all mankind ; and, as Pericles said 
of the Athenians, each unit of them acts as if the fortunes of his 
country depended only on himself. A great nation makes great 
men ; a small nation makes little men." 



General Refiections, 505 

We have also as recent witness the English writer 
Mackenzie, author of a remarkable history of the nine- 
teenth century, and an excellent work on America. 
Here is the last paragraph of his work : 

"America has still something to learn from the riper experience 
and more patient thinking of England. But it has been her 
privilege to teach to England and the world one of the grandest 
of lessons. She has asserted the political rights of the masses. 
She has proved to us that it is safe and wise to trust the people. 
She has taught that the government of the people should be ' by the 
people and for the people.' Let our last word here be a thankful 
acknowledgment of the inestimable service which she has thus 
rendered to mankind." 

And, finally, we have Sir Henry Maine's '' Popular 
Government," a work at which we must often smile, for 
Sir Henry is sorely afraid of Democracy, and charges 
popular government with all the ups and downs of the 
Spanish republics of South America and the French 
republic, and never, seemingly, stops to ask himself how 
these communities have gone on, or how they would 
go on were the rule of a class again tried by them — how 
France did under the monarchy or the empire for in- 
stance. Nevertheless, when he comes to the American 
Constitution he gives us pages of favorable comment, 
and closes his book with these remarkable words : 

"The powers and disabilities attached to the United States 
and to the several States by the Federal Constitution, and placed 
under the protection of the deliberately contrived securities we 



5o6 Trhtmphant Democracy, 

have described, have determined the whole course of American 
history. That history began, as all its records abundantly show, 
in a condition of society produced by war and revolution, which 
might have condemned the great Northern Republic to a fate not 
unlike that of her disorderly sisters in South America. But the 
provisions of the Constitution have acted on her like those dams 
and dykes which strike the eye of the traveller along the Rhine, 
controlling the course of a mighty river which begins amid moun- 
tain torrents, and turning it into one of the most equable Vi^ater- 
ways in the world. 

"When the American Constitution was framed there was no 
such sacredness to be expected for it as before 1789 was supposed 
to attach to all parts of the British Constitution. There was every 
prospect of pohtical mobility, if not of political disorder. The 
signal success of the Constitution of the United States in stemming 
these tendencies is, no doubt, owing in part to the great portion 
of the British institutions which were preserved in it ; but it is 
also attributable to the sagacity with which the American states- 
men filled up the interstices left by the inapplicability of certain of 
the then existing British institutions to the emancipated colonies. 
This sagacity stands out in every part of the 'Federalist,' and it 
may be tracked in every page of subsequent American history. It 
may well fill the Englishmen who live in fcsce Ro7nuli with won- 
der and envy." 

So, my fellow Republicans, the world is coming rap- 
idly to your feet, the American Constitution Is being 
more and more generally regarded as the model for all 

new nations to adopt and for all old nations to strive 
for. 

As I have said In a previous chapter, Americans need 

not expect the aristocracy ever to regard with other 



General Reflections. 507 

than prejudiced mind and vindictive hate a State which 
flaunts in their faces the truth that their existence is a 
positive injury to the nation upon which they feed 
like parasites. How can a peer of Britain who is not 
more of a man than a peer, which few of them are — how 
can he have the slightest wish for the prosperity of a 
nation which would not tolerate his existence as a peer 
within its bounds? 

If any man believe that Queen Victoria, or the 
Prince of Wales, or Kaiser William, or any member of a 
royal family could receive more welcome news than 
that of the downfall of the Republic which proves every 
hour to the parent lands that these royal people are only 
excrescences upon the State, the setters of bad example, 
and the very core round which the worst vices of Eng- 
lish life gather and fester — if any one can believe this, 
his estimate of human nature differs from mine. There 
is not a crowned head in the world, nor a member of a 
royal family who could refrain from secretly rejoicing 
at any disaster which befell a republic, and the joy 
would be in proportion to the magnitude of the disas- 
ter. This is not at all to be wondered at. Indeed it is 
obviously inevitable, and I must confess that when I 
hear of the downfall of any hereditary privilege I croon 
to myself, and am happy. No message so sweet. I 
have my revenge. The overthrow of a monarchy 
and the birth of a republic, as in the case of France, 
is a perfect well-spring of joy to my heart. I fancy 



5o8 Triumphant Democracy, 

there are few Americans who are not equally de- 
lighted. Then let them know and understand that with 
a bitter hate is the Republic hated by the rcyal fami- 
lies and aristocrats, no matter how well they may dis- 
semble and appear to wish it well for policy's sake. 
Let but the Republic be in danger and it will soon see 
how ready they are to stab it from behind. Fortunately 
their power to injure grows less and less, and even 
to-day is quite impotent to arrest the constantly in- 
creasing volume of genuine admiration and affection 
with which this country is regarded by all but this 
small noxious class which is rapidly fading away. 

The assimilation of the political institutions of the 
two countries proceeds apace, by the action of the older 
in the direction of the newer land. Year after year 
some difference is obliterated. Yesterday it was an ex- 
tension of the suffrage, to-day it is universal and com- 
pulsory education, to-morrow the joining of law and 
equity, and the next day it will be the abolition of 
primogeniture and entail ; a few years more and all that 
remains of feudalistic times will have disappeared and 
the political institutions of the two divisions will be 
practically the same, with only such slight variations of 
structure as adapt them to the slightly varying con- 
ditions by which they are surrounded. It has been and 
is my chief ambition to do what little I can, if any- 
thing, to hasten this process, that the two divisions 
may thereby be brought more closely into unison ; 



General Reflections. 509 

that the bonds between my dear native land and my 
beloved adopted land may be strengthened, and drawn 
more tightly together. For sure am I, who am in part 
the child of both, and whose love for the one and the 
other is as the love of man for mother and wife, sure 
am I that the better these grand divisions of the British 
race know each other, the stronger will grow the attach- 
ment between them, and just as sure am I that in their 
genuine affection and indissoluble alliance lie the best 
hopes for the elevation of the human race. God grant, 
therefore, that the future of my native and adopted 
lands may fulfil the hope of the stanchest, ablest, and 
most powerful friend- of this land and the Great Com- 
moner of his own, that ^' although they may be two na- 
tions, they may be but one people." Thus spake John 
Bright, and echoing once more that fond hope, I lay 
down my pen and bid my readers on both sides of the 
Atlantic — Farewell. 



THE END, 



INDEX. 



^A 



Academy of Design, National, 323. 
Adams, John, 156, 183, 212. 
Affairs, foreign, 398. 
Agriculture, 180. 

capital invested in, 204. 

capital invested in farms, 185. 

comparative table of progress, 
184. 

crops, 190. 

farm system, 1S7. 

fifty years ago, 115. 

improved implements in, 189. 

in 1880, 115.' 

live stock, 198. 

Mulhall's table, 190. 

ratio of females employed 
in, 128. 

statistics in 1880, 182. 
Agriculturists, American statesmen 
as, 183. 

number of, 127. 
Allegheny City, 68, 242. 
Ambulance corps, an American in- 
stitution, 437. 
Am.erican hive, the, 127. 
Americans, fifty-five years ago, 86. 

of to-day, 91. 
Animals, live, export of, 206, 269. 
Appleton, D. & Co., 358. 
Antimony, 257. 

Architecture in United States, 329. 
Arfedson, 68, 84, 285. 
Army, 6, 384. 
Arnold, Edwin, 359. 

Matthew, 26, 29, 216, 359, 
414, 442, 480, 502. 
Arsenic, 257. 
Art, Americans as patrons of, 316. 



Art and music, 317. 
Art Union, American, 324. 
Athenaeum, Boston, 324. 
Atkinson, Edward, 40, 273. 275. 
Atlas, Statistical, of United States, 

357- . 
Australia, in. 

Authorities quoted. 
Adams, John, 156. 
Addison, 333. 
Arfedson, 68, 84, 285. 
Arnold, Matthew, 414, 502. 
Atkinson, Edward, 40, 273, 

275. 
Bell, Lowthian, iig. 
Berkeley, Sir William, 134. 
Bishop, Mr., 212. 
Blackwood's Magazine, 1824, 

317. 
Boston Records, 133. 
Bright, John, 509. 
Bryant, William Cullen, 354. 
Burke, Edmund, 164. 
Caird, Mr., 208. 
Carpenter, Philo, Mr., 28S. 
Chamberlain, Mr., 497. 
Channing, 210. 
Cleveland, President, 278, 403, 

409, 410, 469. 
Cobbett, William, 48, 77. 
Confucius, 130. 
Cowen, Mr., 461. 
Cowper, 14. 

Cutter, Rev. Manasseh, 310. 
D'Argenson, Marquis, 283. 
De Bow's Conwiercial Maga- 

zine, 165. 
De Bow's Review, 78. 
De Tocqueville, 46, 476. 
Dicey, Mr., 471. 



512 



Index, 



Authorities quoted. — Continued. 

Dryden, 340. 

Du Boy's " History of Criminal 
Law," 178. 

Eigenrac, 74. 

Financial Reform Almanac, 
467, 469. 

Fisher, Dr. Swainson, 49. 

Fiske, John, "American Politi- 
cal Ideas, 105." 

Forbes, Archibald, 444. 

Fraser, Rev. Mr., 144. 

Freeman, Edward A., 501. 
• Froude, James Anthony, 133, 

503- 
Giffen, Mr., 207. 
Gladstone, Mr., 364, 397, 405, 

453. 
Guizot, 316. 
Hall, Capt. Basil, 68. 
Harte, Bret, 439. 
Hazen, General, 423. 
Hinton, " Topography of 

United States," 114, 
Holmes, O. W., 266. 
Huxley, Professor, 431. 
Jeans," England's Supremacy," 

211. 
Jefferson, President, 103, 150, 

396, 400. 
Kalm, Mr., 182. 
Knox, John, 132. 
Lach Szyrma, Rev. W. S., 431. 
Longfellow, 139, 356. 
Luther, 131. 
Lyell, Sir Charles, 77, 80, 85, 

134, 287. 
]\Iacaulay, 7. 
Mackenzie, Mr., 505. 
Madison, President, 399. 
Maine, Sir Henry, " Popular 

Government," 470. 505. 
Martineau, Miss, 76, 88, 286, 

308, 312. 
Mayr, Dr., 172. 
Mulhall, 6, 114, 116, 167, 185, 

189, 197, 203, 213, 251, 254, 

345, 449- 
Napoleon I., 316. 
Netv Englana Magazitie, 1833, 

166. 



Authorities quoted. — Continued. 

Pidgeon, Mr., "Old World 
Questions and New World 
Answers," 236. 

Philadelphia National Gazette^ 
1834, 166. 

Philadelphia Public Ledger, 
1836, 342. 

Phillips, Wendell, 30. 

Plutarch, 130. 

Price, Sir Rose, " Two Ameri- 
cas," 431. 

Salisbuiy, Marquis of, 369, 377, 
429. 

Shakespeare, 342. 

Spectator, The, 1885, 499. 

Spencer, Herbert, 13, 23, 94, 

359. 433. 
Spencer, Thomas, 446. 
Saint-Prix, Berriat, 178. 
Tennyson, 477. 
Trollope, Mrs., 84. 
Washington, last message to 

Congress, 183. 
Weeks, Jos. D., 123, 124. 
Wells, Hon. David A., 212. 
Whitney, W. C, Secretary of 

Navy, 402. 
Wisconsin Historical Soc, 50. 
Wood, William, Mr., 142. 
Avenues of residences, finest, 55. 



B 



Balance sheet, national, 444. 
Barley, 193. 

Bartlett, Captain, 426, 428. 
Basye, Lismund, 66. 
Bell, Lovvthian, Mr., 119, 239. 
Bismarck, 28, 31. 

Blaine, Mr.," Twenty Years in Con- 
gress," 355. 
Boats, keel, 305. 
Boehmer, Mr., 436. 
Books, American, 355. 

circulation of standard, 359. 
Boston, 70. 

Bright, John, 8, 348, 454, 468, 509. 
Buffalo, 56, 68. 
Bureaus, Government, 436. 



Index, 



513 



Bureaus, non-political, 414. 
Bureau, Weather, 420. 
Burns, 301. 
Butte City, 336. 
Butter and cheese, igg. 



Calhoun, 183. 

Calumet and Hecla mine, 254. 

Canada, iii, 356. 

Canals in 1830, 75, 

miles of and traffic in 1880, 
302. 
Camot, 62. 

Century Magazine, 250, 352. 
Chamberlain, Mr., 97, 497. 
Charitable institutions, 170. 
Cheese, 199. 
Chicago, 14, 52. 
Chisholm Mr., 119. 
Chrome, 256. 

Church of England and the Colo- 
nies, 156. 
Church of England north and south 

of Tweed, 158. 
Church, a free, in a free State, 157. 

power of the, in America, 
164. 

Roman Catholic, 158. 

and State, 158, 161, 163. 
Churches, statistics of, 153. 
Cincinnati, 68, Si, 337. 
Cities and towns, ^6. 
Citizen, equality of the, 19, 32. 
Citizenship, the boon of, 18, 32. 
Civil Service Reform, 480, 495. 
Clarke and Co., of Paisley, 121. 
Clarke, William, 284. 
Clay, Henry, 183. 
Cleveland, 56, 119. 
Cleveland, President, 278, 403, 409, 

469. 
Coal area, 249. 

compared with. British, 259. 
Coast Survey, 431. 
Coates and Co., of Paisley, 121. 
Cobalt, 256. 

Cobbett, William, 48, 77. 
Coke, 248. 



Colombia, Republic of, 401. 
Colorado, 255. 
Colonization, British, 12. 
Columbus in 1832, 6g. 
Colonial policy of Britain, 1 10. 
Commerce and trade, 265. 

British, largely dependent on 

United States, 278. 
history, imports and exports, 

267. 
home, 274. 

increase of foreign, 271. 
internal, of United States 
compared Avith European, 6. 
table of wealth producing 
sources, 270. 
Commission, fish, 431. 

sanitary and Christian, 438, 

443- 
Comstock Lcde, 253. 
Comte, Auguste, 314. 
Connecticut, 134, 173. 
Constellation, Federal, 364. 
Conditions of life, 74. 
Conservatory of Music, 338. 
Contests, political, sums spent in, 

391- 
Copper, statistics, 253, 261. 
Copyright, 359, 480. 
Cost of the Government, 460. 

of living, 122. 
Cotton, 116, 194, 269. 

gin, 10. 

manufactures, 221. 
Courtney, Leonard, Mr., 412. 
Co wen, Mr., 461. 
Crime and criminals, 172. 
Cromv>ell, army of, 7. 
Crops, barley, 193, 

cereals in 1880, 205. 

cotton, 194. 

fruit, 197. ^ 

hay. 194, 

maize, 190. 

oats, 192. 

potatoes, 197. 

rye, 194. 

sorghum, 194. 

tobacco, 196. 

wheat, 191. 
Cyclopaedia, American, 358. 



SH 



Index, 



Daily JVezvs, 353. 

Dairy, Uncle Sam's, 199. 

Dakotah, 39. 

Dalrymple, Mr,, 116. 

Davis, Jefferson, 30. 

Deaf, dumb, and blind, 170. 

Debt, national, in America, 448, 
454, 469. 

Debt, national, of European coun- 
tries, 447. 

Debts, State and city, compared 
with English cities, 449. 

Declaration of Independence, 32,42. 

Democracy, century's harvest of, 
489. 

Democracy, rural, principles of, 107. 

Department, fire, 437. 
legislative, 373. 

Detmold, Mr., 291. 

Detroit, 68. 

Dickens, in " Pickwick," 350. 

Dilke, Sir Charles, 466. 

DisraeH, Mr., 394. 

Douglass, Mr., of Edinburgh, 356. 

Duluth, 65. 

E 

Earnings, comparative table of Brit- 
ish and American, 121. 
Education, 130. 

amounts expended by each 

State, 140. 
free, opposition of Roman 

Catholics to, 140. 
public, America the only 
country that spends more 
on than on war, 138. 
public system of, 136. 
statistics of, 144, 149. 
table of annual expenditure 
in several countries, 138. 
Educational institutions bestowed 

by millionaires, 149. 
Egypt, British interference in, 405. 
Election expenses, 391. 
Electric light, 93. 
Emigrants. See Immigrants. 
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 257. 
Erie, 244. 
Evans, Oliver, 303. 
Executive power, the President, 384. 



Expedition to Pacific, first, 284. 
Exports, 6. 

animals, 206. 

beef, mutton, and pork, 203. 

butter, 206, 269. 

cattle, 200, 206. 

cheese, 199, 206. 

cotton, 195, 269, 

fruit, 197. 

hogs, 200. 

live sheep and cattle, 206, 
269. 

maize, 190. 

meats, 206. 

petroleum, 248, 269. 

timber, 220. 

tobacco, 196, 269. 

wheat, 192, 269. 

F 

Farms, area occupied by, 1 16, 204. 

capital invested in, 185. 

majority of American culti- 
vated by their owners, 187. 

table of, 187. 

total value of Uncle Sam's in 
1880, 197. 

value of farm land, 188. 
Farmers, number of, 127. 
Farrar, Archdeacon, 161. 
Federal constellation, 364. 

system, 102, 364. 
Federation, imperial, 112. 
Ferro-manganese, 258. 
Fitch, John, 303. 
Fire-engine, steam, 83. 
Fourth of July, 126. 
Foreign Affairs, 398. 
Franklin, 10. 

Froude, James Anthony, 133, 503. 
Fulton, Robert, 303. 



Garfield, President, 389. 
Gas, natural, 242. 
General reflections, 472. 
Gladstone, Mr., 364, 397, 405, 453» 

478. 
Glin, Dr., 115, 116. 
"God Save the Queen," new words 

for, 8. 



Index. 



515 



Gold, statistics of, 251. 
Government, American form of, 
more conservative than a mon- 
archy, 476, 486. 

British, John Bright on, 468. 

cost of, 460. 

departments and bureaus, 

415. 
Federal System, the basis of, 

3^7- 
Jefferson on, 103. 
local in Iowa, 100. 
non-political work of, 414. 
power of Supreme Court, 367, 

369- 
power of. United States and 
Great Britain contrasted, 

378-3S4. 
relative cost of United States 

and British, 465. 
revenues of the, 457, 
United States, the largest 
printer and publisher in the 
world, 434. 
Granite, 257. 
Grant, General, 27, 379, 3S5, 389. 

" Personal Memoirs of," 38S. 
Greek Lexicon, the standard, 357. 

H 

Hall, Captain Basil, 68. 
Hancock, John, 212. 
Harbors and rivers, 429. 
Harper's Alagazine, 350, 352. 

Yotmg People, 352. 
Harrison, George, 97. 
Harte, Bret, poem, 439. 
Hazen, General, 423. 
Hill-side plough, 10. 
Hive, the American, 127. 
Hogs, Uncle Sam's, 198. 
Home Rule, 102, 367, 47S. 
Horn Silver Mine, 256. 
Horses, Uncle Sam's, 198. 
Howard, Mr., M.P., 198, 239. 



Idaho, 39, 336. 
Immigrants to far West, 48. 



Immigrants. — Continued. 

from British America largely 
occupied in manufacture, 

T20. 

number of British, 1840- 
1880, 25. 
Immigration, statistics of, 24, 33. 

value of to United States, 34. 
Imports, 267. 

coffee, 268. 

cotton goods, 268. 

silks, 268. 

sugar and molasses, 268, 

tea, 268. 

wool, woollen goods, 268, 
Indianapolis, 66. 
Indians, annual expense of, 464. 
Industrial corps, four divisions of, 

127. 
Industries, statistics of, 213. 

boots and shoes, 226. 

carpet trade, 225. 

colonial, log. 

cotton, 221. 

in 1880, 113. 

flour and grist, 215. 

iron and steel, 217. 

lumber trade, 219. 

mixed textiles, 225. 

slaughtering, etc., 215. 

table of various, 228. 

woollen, 233. 

of women, 119. 

of to-day, 113, I18. 
Industry, American, 117. 
Institution, Smithsonian, 434. 
Institutions, American, 501, 502, 

503, 505- 

charitable, 171, 175, 176. 

educational, 149. 
Instruction, public, system of 

in Connecticut, in 1700, T32, 
Inventions, American, 

British share in, iig. 

cotton-gin, 10. 

electric light, 93. 

fire-engine, steam, 83. 

hill-side plough, 183, 

mowing machine, 10. 

reaping machine, 10. 

Pullman car, 3(X). 



5i6 



Index, 



Inventions. — Continued, 

sewing machine, lO. 

steam-boat, lo, 92. 

sleeping car, 297. 

telegraph, 10, 16. 

telephone, 10, 92. 

whistling- buoy, 430. 
Iowa, 100. 
Iridium, 257. 

J 

Jeannette Expedition. 553. 
James River colonists, 182. 
Jefferson, President, 103, 150, 183, 

396, 400. 
Jouett, Rear-Admiral, 401. 
Journalism, American, 353. 
July, fourth of, 126. 

K 

Kansas City, 39, 67. 
Kendrick, Alderman, 97. 



Lead, statistics of, 254, 262. 
Leadville, growth of, 257. 
League, copyright, 359. 
Legislative Department, 373. 
Libraries, statistics of, 360. 
Lexicographers, two American, 356. 
Lexicon, the standard Greek, 357. 
Life, conditions of, 74. 
Light-house board, 430. 
Lincoln, Abraham, 28, 41, 61, 385, 

,390- 
Literature, 342. 
Live stock. Uncle Sam's, 198. 
Living in Britain and America, 

relative cost of, 122. 
Livingstone, search for, 353. 
Longfellow, 356. 
Lyeli, Sir Charles, 77, So, 85, 134, 

287. 
Lynn, 113. 

M 

Madison, President, 399. 
Macaulay, 7, 358. 

Machines, mowing, reaping, sew- 
ing, 10. 



Malibran, Madame, 333. 
Manufactures, boot and shoe, II3, 
211, 226. 

in Colonial period, 109. 
comparative estimate of pro- 
ducts in Great Britain and 
United States, 214. 
cotton, 223. 
estimate of power used in, in 

America, 231. 
importance of, relative to 

agriculture, 213. 
iron and steel, 269. 
Mulhall's table of progress, 

213. 
pig-iron in America compared 

with Scotch, 235. 
silverware, 233. 
survival of the fittest, the new 

interpretation, 227. 
thread, 234. 

under British rule in Ameri- 
can colonies, 211. 
value of, in 1880, 4. 
watches, 229, 233. 
women employed in, 128. 
Manufactory, first pianoforte, 91. 
Manufacturing nation, the greatest 

in the world, 214. 
Marble, 257. 

Martin, Edward, Mr., 239. 
Merriwether, Lewis, 284. 
Military power of United States, 

6, 3S4. 
Milwaukee, 56, 336. 
Mineral resources, 256. 
Mines, coal, 248. 

copper, 253, 261. 
the Comstock Lode, 253. 
gold, 251. 

Lake Superior, 254. 
lead, 254, 257- 
quicksilver, 256. 
silver, 252, 260, 
zinc, 256. 
Mining, 241. 
Minneapolis, 58, 60, 62. 
Minnesota, 39, 58, 64. 
Mississippi and its tributaries, navi- 
gable system of, 14. 
Mitchell, Alexander, 57, 295. 



Index. 



517 



Monroe Doctrine, 400. 

Montana, 39, 64. 

Morley, John, M.P., 359, 478. 

Morse, Samuel F. B., 323. 

Murray, Mr. H., 115. 

Music and art, 316. 

Music in America, 332. 

National School of, 339. 



N 



National balance sheet, the, 444. 

Nautical Almanac, 432. 

Navy, 6. 

Nelson, 26. 

New Orleans, 16. 

Newspapers, American readers of, 

344. 

number of daily, 21. 
first published in British col- 
onies, 70. 
circulation of, 346. 
New York, 16. 

compared with London, 51. 

in 1880, 81. 

water supply, compared with 

that of London, 82, 
lighting of streets, 1830, 81. 
New York Herald, 353. 
Nickel, 256. 
Nilsson, Miss, 335. 
Non-political work, Government, 
414. 

O 

Oatmeal, American, 193. 
Occupations, 109. 

according to census, 1880, 
118. 

in Colonial period, 109. 

four divisions of, 127. 

women's, 119. 
O'Donovan, 353. 
Office, Hydrographic, the, 418, 427. 

Naval Intelligence, 428. 

Patent, and its museum, 433. 
Officials, country, election of, lOl. 

salaries of, 102. 
Opera, 333, 339. 

houses in America, 335. 



Operatives, factory, in America, in 

England, 86. 
Orchestra, Thomas', 338. 
Oregon, 39. 
Organizations, country, 99. 

local township, contrasted 
with English, 95. 



Painting, in United States, 326. 
Patent Office and museum, 433. 
Pauperism, influx of foreign in 1833, 
166. 

in Virginia, 165. 

in England and America, 168. 
Pennsylvania Railroad, 6, 294. 
People, American, 23. 
Periodicals, number published in 

1880, 344. 
Petroleum, 245, 260. 
Philadelphia, 51, 119. 

Public Ledger, 342. 
Picture gallery, first of importance, 

91. 
Picturesque America, 355. 
Pitt, William, 393. 
Pittsburgh, 14, 68, 242, 248. 
Platinum, 257. 
Population, capacity of United 

States to absorb, 38. 
Population, increase of, in Alle- 
gheny City, 68. 

in Boston, 70. 

in Brooklyn, 50. 

in Buffalo, 68. 

in Chicago, 53. 

in Cleveland, 55. 

in Cincinnati, 68. 

in Columbus, Ga., 69. 

in Detroit, 68, 

in Duluth, 65. 

in Indianapolis, 65. 

in Jersey City, 55. 

in Kansas City, 67. 

in Milwaukee, 56. 

in Minneapolis, 58. 

in New York, 51. 

in Philadelphia, 51, 68. 

in Pittsburgh, 68. 



5i8 



Index, 



Population, increase of. — Continued. 

in Rochester, 68. 

in San Francisco, 55. 

in Scranton, 6S, 

in St. Paul, 58. 

in Toledo, 68. 

in Minnesota, 58. 

in Iowa in 1830 and 1880, 47. 

in the United States, 2. 

in Wisconsin, 50. 

in the fifty largest cities, 52. 

proportion of colored to 
white, 44. 

white between Lake Michi- 
gan and Pacific, in 1835, 

49. 
yearly increase of, 49. 

Postal system, 79. 

President, extracts from message of, 
403, 409, 410. 

power of, 384, 389. 
and Prime Minister of Brit- 
ain compared, 393. 
Produce, dairy, 199. 

statistics of the National 
Butter, Cheese, and Egg 
Association, Chicago, 200. 
Products, agricultural and pastoral, 
181. 
value of agricultural in 1884, 
198. 
Pullman, George, 299, 300. 



Quicksilver, 256. 



R 



Railway system, 16, 92, 292. 
Railways and waterways, 283. 
Reflections, general, 472. 
Religion, 152. 

Representative?, House of, com- 
pared with House of Commons, 

374. 
Republic, The, i. 

and Monarchy, in recent 
emergencies, 401. 



Revenues of the government, 457. 

in 1935, II. 
Richards, \Vindsor, Mr., 239. 
Rivers and Harbors, 429. 
Rochester, 68. 
Rosebery, Lord, 112, 377. 



Salisbury, Marquis of, 369, 377, 

429. 
Sandstone, 257. 
San Francisco, 54. 
Salt, 257. 

Savings of America, 1880, 4. 
Scott, Thomas A., 297. 
Scranton, 68. 
School system, common, 19, lOO. 

law of Massachusetts, 1642, 
132. 

libraries, 361. 

tax, 142. 
Schools, in Connecticut, 134. 

cost of public, 1880, 147. 

in Massachusetts, 134. 

of music, 339. 

normal, 137. 

number of, 143. 

of painting, 327. 

private, 143. 

public, support of, 142. 

in New England in 1834, 136. 

Virginia, Sir William Berke- 
ley on, 134. 

for women, 146. 
Scribner's Sons, Charles, 357. 
Sculpture, 328. 
Sects, religious, 155, 158. 
Self-dependence, American, 444. 
Senate, American, 375. 

and House of Lords com- 
pared, 483. 

Lord Salisbury on the, 377. 
Seward, Wm. H., 21, 61. 
Seymour, Admiral, 407. 
Sherman, General, 385. 
Shipping, tonnage of, in United 
States, 274. 

American, 5. 
Signal Service, 419, 425. 
Silver, 252. 



Index. 



519 



Silver. — Continued. 

mines of United States com- 
pared with Spanish Amer- 
ica, 260. 

Slavery, 17, 41. 

Smiles, Samuel, 359. 

Smithsonian Institution, 434. 

Society, Historical, New York, 324. 

Spencer, Herbert, 13, 23, 94, 359, 

433. 
Stanley, Henry M., 353. 
Stanton, Edwin, 62, 385. 
States, Northern, 42, 45. 

relative size of American and 
European countries,40,283. 

Southern, 42, 45. 
Stead, Isaac, Mr., 119. 
Steamboat, Fulton's, 304. 

first in Mississippi Valley, 

304. 

on Western Rivers, 308. 

"Pilgrim," 3f2. 

traffic by, on the Ohio, 309. 
Steel rails, 54. 
St. Nicholas Magazine, 352. 
Stones, building, 257. 
Storey, Samuel, M. P., 97. 
St. Paul, Minn., 59. 
Supreme Court, 369. 

Lord Salisbury on, 369. 



Tariff Policy, 277. 
Taxation, 457, 479. 
Telegraph, 10, 16. 
Telephone, 10, 92. 
Tennyson, 356, 359, 477. 
Texas, 40. 
Theatres, 335. 
Thomas, Mr., 1 19, 
Thomas' Orchestra, 338. 
Toledo, 68. 
Towns and cities, 46. 

origin of names of, 71. 

growth of, 65. 
Townships, organization of, 100. 
Trade and commerce, 265. 

carrying, 273. 

free, 15. 
Transportation, inland, 301. 



Travel, early modes of, 292. 
Treaty-making and war power, 378. 
Twain, Mark, 253. 



U 



United States, geographical form- 
ation, 13, 

Lakes of, 14. 



Victoria, Queen, 319, 407, 466, 500. 



W 



Wales, Prince of, 320, 394, 407, 500. 

Wallace, Mr., 119. 

War and treaty-making power, 
378. 

Washburn brothers, 60, 63. 

Washington, last message to Con- 
gress, 183. 

Washington Temtory, 39. 

Watches, manufacture of, 234. 

Water supply of cities, 81. 

Waterways and railways, 283. 

Wealth of United States, 3. 

Webster, Daniel, 183. 

Webster's " Spelling Book," 358. 

Weeks, Jos. D., Mr., 123, 124. 

Whitney, W. C, Secretary of Navy, 
402. 

Wisconsin, 50. 

Wolseley, Lord, 461. 

Woodruff, T. T., Mr., 299. 

Wood, exports, 220. 

and its manufactures, 269. 
in the Territories, 220. 

Woods, in New York Museum, 221. 

Wool -growing, 202. 

Wyoming, 39. 



Yachts, the Queen's, 466. 



Zinc, 256, 262. 



New, Uniform Edition of 

ANDREW CARNEGIE'S 
BOOKS. 



AN AMERICAN FOUR-IN-HAND IN BRITAIN. New Edjtion. 

12mo, cloth, $1 50 

12nso, paper, 25 cents. 
ROUND THE WORLD. New Edition. 12mo, cloth, . . 1 50 

TRIUMPHANT DEMOCRACY; or, Fifty Years' March of 

the Republic. New Edition. 12mo, cloth, ... i 50 

12mo, paper, 50 CENTS. 



CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, Publishers, 

743-743 Broad^seay, New York, 



Triumphant Democracy ; or, Fifty Years' 
March of the Republic. 

This work Avill open the eyes of the masses to the wonderful advance- 
ment — physical, moral, political, and intellectual — of the United States 
during the last half century, an advancement either little understood or 
willfully misrepresented in Europe. Though various causes have con- 
tributed to this unexampled rate of progress, the principal one, in Mr. 
Carnegie's opinion, is the fundamental fact of the equality of the citizen 
in the Republic. 

To this grand principle all nations must eventually subscribe, he 
argues, and the sooner it is adopted by Great Britain the better for the 
country and the better for the people. Its author claims that it is pure 
missionary work on his part, and that his sole desire in its preparation 
has been to show his countrymen — and to prove by solid facts and 
figures — the superiority of republican over monarchical institutions. 
This is the true inwardness of his book and of its title — " Triumphant 
Democracy, " 



ANDREW CARNEGIE'S BOOKS. 



TRIUMPHANT DEMOCRACY 



What Boston says about it : 

A copy of Triumphant Democracy should be placed in every school 
library in the United States. — Beacon. 

In many respects Triumphant Democracy is a book as yet unsurpassed ; 
the theory and philosophy are admirable, and cannot fail to prove a vital 
and valuable suggestion and delight to every American reader. — Globe. 



What Philadelphia says about it : 

Triumphant Democracy is an epic of material progress. — Ledger. 
No true American but must feel a glow of patriotic pride on reading 
this book. — Inquirer. 

What Chicago says about it. 

Readable from cover to cover. It is a valuable and important con- 
tribution to the literature and history of the country. — Tribune. 

To the great mass of British people this book will be in the nature of 
a revelation. — -Journal. 



What New York says about it. 

The most eulogistic glorification of the United States ever written. 
His book is most interesting. It will be read with zest on both sides of 
the Atlantic, — Herald. 

Mr. Carnegie takes the dry summaries of the census, and with a few 
striking illustrations turns them into wonder-tales. — Tribtute. 

It is not simply a panegyric, but it is full of valuable information 
showing why the Republic is worthy of the high position he gives to her. 
■—Journal of Commerce. 

A book for the patriotic American. * * Sure to attract attention, 
and will make a deep impression on the mind of whoever reads it care- 
fully. We hope it may be read abroad, and we hope it may be read at 
home. — Critic. 



ANDREW CARNEGIE'S BOOKS. 

• — — — — • 

An American Four-in-Hand in Britain. 

The book gives a lively account of the author's famous 
drive with a party of friends on a coach through England 
and Scotland. The trip was originally suggested by Mr. 
Black's novel, " The Strange Adventures of a Phaeton," 
and extended from Brighton to Inverness, a distance of 
more than eight hundred miles, which was accomplished in 
about seven weeks. Mr. Carnegie is an entertaining and 
agreeable writer, and this record of his novel journey makes 
a most delightful and readable book. 



"A fresh and vivacious narrative of a very delightful trip. England 
has been done many times by Americans, but we doubt whether ever 
under circumstances more agreeable, or in a manner more favorable to 
observation, than by the party whose summer holiday is described by 
Mr. Carnegie. . . . They traversed in their own four-in-hand, and 
with a most charming independence of the ordinary conventionalities 
and annoyances of travel, 831 miles. . . . Mr. Carnegie's volume 
will be found very delightful reading." — Boston Journal. 

" Mr. Andrew Carnegie has performed successfully a very difficult 
task. He drove with a party of friends in a four-in-hand coach from 
Brighton to Inverness ; he jotted down all he saw upon the road, and he 
has produced a book of travel as fresh as though he had been exploring 
Thibet or navigating the River of Golden Sand." — T/ie Critic. 

"Mr. Carnegie entered into the spirit of the expedition most com- 
pletely, and, what is extremely rare, is able to communicate a vivid idea 
of the entire affair long after its occurrence. . . . Without confining 
himself slavishly to the mere details of the trip, he tells us all about it in 
a manner so poetical, and at the same time so sensibly, that no intelli- 
gent person can fail to be impressed." — ^Saturday Evening Herald^ 
Chicago. 



ANDREW CARNEGIE'S BOOKS. 

Round the World. 

Mr. Carnegie's Four-in-Hand in Britain was one of 
the brightest and most popular books of the season. His 
new volume, as it has a wider scope, has also a more com- 
prehensive interest and value. Buoyant, keen, joyous, and 
practical, the author sets down, without reserve or affectation, 
just the impressions that made themselves most vividly felt 
at the moment, and the rapid flow of the narrative fairly 
enchains the reader's attention. 

Sailing from San Francisco to Japan on his course round 
the world, the larger part of Mr. Carnegie's book is taken 
up with the description of Eastern lands, and it forms a 
real addition to the literature of travel. 



** His pages excite our attention unfailingly throughout. The book 
is sparkling in style, and has a strong and distinctive character as a 
narrative of travel and incident." — Boston Herald. 

" Mr. Carnegie's book may be ranked among the very best of its 
kind." — Boston Saturday Evening Gazette. 

"Everywhere the traveler finds rich materials for thought fresh to 
his hand, as though he vi'ere an explorer on the shores of a new found 
land. None of the hackneyed sentiments of ordinary sightseers are here 
rehashed, to the infinite weariness of the reader, but bright and vivid 
impressions are given of every country visited, and the looks and ways 
of its people are intelligently commented on." — The Charleston News 
and Courier. 

" Mr. Carnegie surveys the world as a practical man of business. 
He is interested in commerce, manufactures, agriculture, statistics, capi- 
tal, wages, the condition of laborers, and concerns himself less with, 
while not overlooking, scenery, manners, and customs. His intelligent, 
manly, sensible book will well repay anybody's reading." — The Literary 
World. 



For sale by all booksellers, or sent, postpaid, on receipt of price. 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 

74^ and y4^ Broadway, New York. 



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